


Welcome to the Apocalypse.

by imbadatlove



Category: Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: A Brand New Campaign Storyline, Angst, Blood and Gore, Focuses on Nick and Ellis, Mainly focuses on their journey rather than pairings, Multi, OCs - Freeform, Violent and upsetting scenes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2018-09-18 06:35:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 79,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9372500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imbadatlove/pseuds/imbadatlove
Summary: It doesn't matter if they've got nothin', they're survivors, they'll get through this shit. Together.





	1. Hotel

Why the fuck was he always in the worst place at the worst time? And he thought he had a good relationship with Lady Luck herself; nope, she pretty much just shit all over his future.

He bursted the door off of its' handles and walked out onto the roof where he saw noisy, vast helicopters flying overhead above them before they disappeared into the distance where all you could see was burning buildings and the summer sunrise.

"COME BACK, WE'RE STILL HERE!" A Southern voice rang out through the air, which was soon joined by two other voices.

"HEY! COME BACK, COME BACK!" Another thick accent rang out, but it was slightly different to the other persons'.

"They did not just leave us on this roof!" A woman yelled out, panic written messily all over her face. Well, from the sounds of it, he wasn't the only non-Southern person here, that was good to know.

Great, he was stuck in some hick city with three people that he didn't even know and, with his luck, a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of dying in this shithole.

"This is all going to hell." He muttered and scanned the people before him.

"Anyone know where that choppers' heading?" The woman asked and a tall, round male in a coaching uniform turned to face her.

"If I ain't mistaken, that choppers' headin' to the mall. If we wanna live, this is probably our best bet, y'all." The man nodded towards the table with a few weapons scattered upon it. There were two crowbars and two axes' as well as one pistol. The suited man immediately dived for the pistol and examined it with his fingers.

"Are yew sure yew even know how to use tha', man?" That Southern voice reached his ears and he realised that the person speaking to him was a lot younger than he thought. He turned to face said male, scowling, as usual.

"I know how to use it, kid." He spat. The 'kid' put his hands out in front of him defensively.

"'Ey man, no need to sound so angry. Shit. I was jus' askin'." He muttered before picking up and axe of off the table and practising swinging it out in front of him.

"And I was 'jus' sayin''." He mocked the boys' accent which seemed to do the trick because the kid shut up after that. He turned to his other 'teammates' to see the other two gathering the remaining weapons.

"Alright, guys. I think those...things might be down there. Let's stick together and watch each others' backs."

"What, do you think we're all just gonna run off down the hallways of death screaming bloody murder?" The suited man rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, suit. I'm saying this for the benefit of all of us." She pointed her axe in his direction threateningly and turned on her heel before making her way down the stairs back to the hotel hallways. They all followed her down and stood at the next door where behind it were all the horrors that they'd have to face. The woman took a deep breath before kicking the door down with her foot.

All of them froze, terrified.

The hallway was coated with blood and gore, with mindless, flesh-eating beings leaning against walls or laying dead or unconscious on the once creme carpet floor, but was now a dark crimson. One of the freaks lifted their heads at the smell of flesh meat and blood, its' cold, dead eyes locked with the groups' wide ones. Without warning, the monster sprinted at the group, mouth agape and bloodied teeth chomping.

The suited man stepped forward and aimed, firing a bullet which planted itself right between the infecteds' eyes. It fell to the floor with a sickening 'thud' before it laid lifeless.

"Zombies are real, I knew those books were non-fiction!" The boy exclaimed, staring down at the motionless corpse infront of his feet. The suited man guffawed.

"Zombies? Seriously, this is what we're calling these guys?"

"Well, Mr. Gambling man, this is purdy much wha' they are." The kid replied cheekily and the gambler just rolled his eyes and for once, refused to dampen this kids' spirits. They all walked into another room, where there were a few 'zombies' but they were killed pretty quickly. As much as they hated to kill these beings, it had to be done if they wanted to survive.

"Hey y'all, come look at this." The Coach urged as he stood staring down at a map laid on a table. Over different states was a cross where presumably the infected had taken over, showing which places were safe and which weren't.

"Jesus, the whole countrys' fallen."

"I heard about this on the News, but Jesus. I didn't know it was this bad." The woman sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Lookin' at that map, I wouldn' mind headin' to, I don' know, N'awlins?" The kid pointed at the state on the map which surprisingly was still marked as 'safe'.

Knowing their luck, they'd hike half way across the damn country just to get eaten alive.

"Doesn't look like there's a whole lot of options." The gambler groaned.

"N'awlins it is then!" The Coach declared and the suited man scoffed.

"Oh, so you're the leader now? Why didn't I see that coming?"

"Oh shut up, suit."

"Whatever."

"Boys! Can we just get going? The sooner we get out of this hotel, the better." They all agreed and made their way out the room and down the hallways again.

Not too many infected came in their path luckily, but then there was a distant sound that didn't sound human, or like a zombie for that matter. It was a murky, loud, choking cough that alerted the survivors as they began down a second flight of stairs.

"What's that noise?" The gambler asked.

"There were reports of things worse than zombies..." The woman muttered as they kept walking down. They opened up another door only to see that the hallway was blocked with fire. They scanned their surroundings looking for a way around when the kid pointed out a ledge that they could use to get round.

They all began to cross the ledge, the woman reminding herself frequently to 'not look down'. As they crossed, they quickly noticed that there echoes of four footsteps slowly changed to three.

"Sweetie, do you know your way around this hotel?" The woman directed her question towards the kid and was certain she'd get a reassuring answer, but all she encountered was silence. She furrowed her brows before turning to face the kid who was supposed to be behind her.

He was nowhere to be seen.

"Guys! We've lost a guy!" She called to her two teammates in front of her and they both started looking around equally as panicked, though the gambler looked as if he didn't care as much. The Coach held up a hand signaling them to be quiet and that's when they heard it; quiet, panicked, choking coughs and cries for help. Their eyes widened and they immediately sprinted to where the sound was coming from. The sight that they were met with made them feel physically ill.

Their missing teammate was entangled in a grotesque, pink, coated in saliva tongue which constricted them around their throat, torso and waist. They were struggling to pry the tongue off of them as a tall, boil covered, disgusting infected dug claws into the kids' back, restraining him from going anywhere. As the woman and the Coach ran forward to attack, the gambler had already pierced five bullets throught the things' head, making it drop their victim and explode into a thick, green cloud of toxic smoke.

The Coach and the girl lifted the boy by his armpits and threw him out of the gas' reach. He spluttered and coughed, choked and wheezed as he took deep breaths and pried the remaining muscle off of his body before throwing up on the carpet next to him.

"You alright?" The girl patted his shoulder reassuringly when he was finished throwing up.

"I'm fine, jus' a lil squeezed is all." Their were purple and swelled bruises forming in a ring where the tongue had been wrapped around the boys' neck. There was nothing they could do for them, but they obviously ached badly.

"What kind of sign of the apocalypse is that?" The gambler grumbled before walking back the way they'd just came. They all followed reluctantly without a word.

As they reached the end of another hallway, they spotted an elevator. They quickly scrambled in it and hit the button to send them down. They all caught their breath and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Anyone get bit? Is that how this works?" The suited man asked, shoving his newly-found pistol in his holster. He did deserve to keep it, he'd proved he was a good shot.

"Nah, I'm good. My friends call me Coach, I guess y'all can do the same."

"Hey, name's Rochelle, you?"

"Ellis, pleasure to meet yew, Rochelle."

"Name's Nick. Now, what the hell was it that caught the kid?" Nick questioned, letting his poker face hide the fear he was really feeling.

"I work for the News and there was several reports of mutated zombies, I think the one that hurt Ellis was a Smoker, hence why he exploded into toxic gas when you killed it, Nick." Rochelle explained.

"Bet that 'Smoker' guy is popular with the lady zombies, eh?" He snickered and his teammates visibly gagged.

"Alright, y'all. We gon' be stickin' together through this shit, ya hear? Gon' watch out for each others' backs 'n' shit. Let's all stcik together through—" Coach was cut off by a loud, alarming bell sounding through their ears as the elevator crashed onto the lower level.

"Shit. D'ya think tha' would'a attracted zombies?" Ellis asked, clenching his axe in his hands till he knuckles stained white.

"Probably, hillbilly. Don't worry if they get to you, we were gonna leave you anyway." Nick smirked before trying to open the elevator doors and having zero luck.

"Great, we're stuck."

Ellis walked forward and stuck the axe blade in between the two elevator doors before prying them both away from each other, making both doors slam either sides and letting them exit. He turned to the gambler and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Fuck you." The kid just laughed.

They all stepped out the elevator to see the lobby was burnt to a crisp with lots of flames still alight and burning badly. Zombie stupidly ran into them and crumpled down to the floor in burnt ashes but when some zombies ran through, they were prefectly fine. One of those zombies ran at them and Coach sunk his crowbar into the monsters' head and kicked it onto the floor. Blood sprayed from the new wound Coach had just carved into the poor zombies' head.

"Those ones in 'em suits must be fireproof." He commented and they made their way through the lobby until they spotted a metal, painted red, open door with a makeshift room inside.

They all ran and piled themselves into it before shutting and barricading the door by pushing some furniture in front of it. They collapsed to the floor exhausted and unable to believe that they were actually surviving this shit.

"Y'know wha', y'all? I think we're actually gonna make it!" Ellis exclaimed optimistically and Nick was already feeling ill at the amount of spirit in that kid.

"Yeah, kid, we just made our way through one hotel. One. Don't get your hopes up until we're actually safe, 'kay?"

They were safe...for now.


	2. Streets

The blinding sunlight flickered through the steel bars of the saferoom door; indicating that the survivors would have to face another horrifying day in this fucked up world they lived in now. They were all awake, well, three of them were anyway.

Nick kicked Ellis in the shoulder who was currently drooling on the blood stained carpet, which didn't even make the younger man stir. He opted for another tactic; he scooped the boys' hat off of his soft, curly locks before smacking him in the face with it. Hard.

"Owh! Wha' the hell, man?" He groaned as he snatched his hat off from the gamblers' hands and plopping it back on top of his head before narrowing his eyes at the man.

"You were taking forever to wake up, Overalls." He stated before walking to the desk and examining some weapons scattered upon it. Ellis quirked an eyebrow before standing up and following the man.

"Overalls? Is tha' muh nickname or somethin'?"

"Yep because only a dumbass would wear overalls in an apocalypse." Nick snickered, picking up a submachine gun and weighing it in his hands.

"But they ain' overalls, they're coveralls. An' I think tha' someone who would wear a suit in an apocalypse is a dumbass." Ellis smirked at the other. Nick turned around and faced him fully, looking mock-offended. 

"At least I have better fashion sense." Nick huffed.

"Well, I particularly care more about survivin' than I do about what clothes I pick out of the closet, gamblin' man. Looks like cheap fabric too." Ellis crossed his arms over his chest, amused. 

"Actually, hillbilly, this suit is more than ten thousand dollars, probably worth more than your life." He retorted. 

"I doubt ya even have a life, probably jus' wasted all ya money on gamblin'—" Rochelle groaned as she stood up to break up the argument. 

"Boys, please! You two act like an old married couple—" They both looked at Ro, then looked back at each other and gagged, "—And we need to work together as a team, alright? There's no need for you two to be fighting like children all the time." Rochelle crossed her arms over her chest waiting for an answer.

"Baby girls' right. If we wanna live, strength in numbers is our best bet righ' now. Let's get goin' y'all before we waste anymore sunligh'. I also know a gunshop around here tha' we can pay a visit and stock up on some weapons. Sound good, kids?" Coach ordered and they all nodded in approval, though scowls were exchanged between the two other men, and picked up a weapon from the table. Coach took a shotgun, Rochelle took a submachine gun, Ellis took a machine-gun and Nick exchanged his old pistol for a Desert Eagle.

"If you're not ready, I don't wanna hear it." The former con man muttered before pulling the bar off the saferoom door and walking outside. The sun blinded him temporaily but as his eyes adjusted, he noticed that there were CEDA trailers scattered around the street where they were currently at. After further inspection, he noticed that there were a few zombies in the distance, but not enough to be a threat towards their group of four. And after what happened to their comrad with a mutated infected, they weren't going to take any chances.

They all walked out the saferoom and started up the street where they saw more tents with beds and monitors in as well as a few open vans that had seemingly crashed. There was suddenly a muffled, light growling from behind the group.

A single, protected, hazmat suit zombie staggered towards them before sprinting when it realised how lively the group was. Rochelle, being the closest, shot it down first before it could do any damage. The zombie dropped a jar and it rolled along the floor when it fell, dead.

"Woah, tha' one jus' dropped somethin' righ' there!" Ellis pointed at the jar before jogging over to it and picking it up. His teammates looked over his shoulder at what he'd picked up.

"Is that what I think it is?" Rochelle muttered as she read the label plastered onto the jar.

"Aw man...A jar is no place for bodily functions." The mechanic sighed before turning to the others.

"Well, should we keep it? I mean, it migh' come in handy later on." He asked, shrugging as he looked at the green bile swishing from side to side in the glass.

"Migh' as well, young'un." Coach nodded and Ellis tucked the bile safely in his coveralls pocket before they all started walking again.

They walked down a steep ramp before they were greeted by a door; Nick opened it before walking inside and the first thing he spotted was the glistening, red axe head hanging by its handle on the wall. He smirked and walked over to it before picking it up and twisting it in his hands.

"This feels good..." He smirked maliciously at the infected standing before him. As it lunged at him, he swung the axe at it, sending its' head hurling into the nearest wall.

His teammates took a small but painful step back.

"Remind me to never get on Nicks' bad side." Rochelle whispered to Ellis and Coach who nodded in approval.

They all then stepped carefully down the stairs before a rough, deep voice hit their ears. They looked at each other frantically and raised their weapons.

"Did you guys hear that?" Rochelle mumbled, aiming her submachine gun at the next door that they currently stood at.

"Yeah, keep your eyes and ears out y'all." Coach warned before opening the door. They shot at a few infected in front of their path before continuing down it.

Suddenly, a large infected with one huge arm and one minscule arm appeared in front of them. They all froze, bewildered.

"Awh, what the heck is tha'..." Coach aimed his shotgun but he never got to pull the trigger. The mutated infected sprinted at them in blazing speed, hitting every single one of them and grabbing Coach with its fist along the way. The other survivors were thrown in the air and landed with a sickening thud and Coach was bashed into a nearby wall. The creature lifted Coach up before crashing his fist back down, pummeling the man into the ground.

"SHOOT THIS DAMN THING!" He shouted as his back collided with the hard concrete once again. His teammates got up and ran rapidly to him and shot the things' back until it went limp and dropped Coach, who was now laying in a small pool of blood.

"Shit...You okay?" Rochelle bit her lip as she helped Coach up and gave him a once-over. His front wasn't two badly damaged but his back had wedged pieces of rubble, glass and any other materials that laid on the concrete stuck in his back. They were only small, but clearly painful because they'd started bleeding already. There wasn't too much blood, but they'd have to tend to the wounds sooner or later.

"Gawd damn, the hell was tha' thing?" He picked up his shotgun that he'd dropped when he was carried away and assessed the dead infected on the ground.

"Wait, Ro, didn' yew say there were different type of zombies?" Ellis asked and Rochelle nodded.

"So we've seen two, uh, special? Special infected, I guess." She scratched the back of her neck as she tried to remember the names. "I think that's a Charger,"

"Well you know what they say about zombies with one big arm." Nick commented.

The others were not amused.

The rest of their journey through the streets went pretty well, with only a few infected here and there, which proved to bot be as big as a worry as the Special Infected they had encountered so far. They scanned a few more buildings as well as passing through some until they were met with numerous 'MALL EVAC' flashing signs. They began to follow them until they passed through another building and jumped down onto another CEDA trailer.

"Are these the bastards that are supposed to be saving our asses?" Nick asked as he gazed upon the trailed they'd just jumped off.

"Yeah, they were evacing people out of the area as soon as they could, but that's all I know. That's what the news said anyway."

They walked up another flight of stairs and platforms before they were met with a bridge where they could see a sign: 'Whitakers' Gun Shop'.

"Hey y'all, tha' gun shops jus' up ahead!" The boy exclaimed excitedly before jogging in the general direction of the store. The others followed at a more slowed pace, but made sure the kid wouldn't get in trouble nonetheless.

Once at the gun store they walked in and, holy shit, if it wasn't paradise. There was only a few guns left, but they weren't complaining; any extra firepower was sure as hell welcome around these parts.

Nick took a M16, Rochelle took an AK-47, Coach took a Spas-12 and Ellis took a military sniper. As they scanned the rest od the shop, a loud speaker rang above them overhead.

"Normally, any thieves that woulda dared to rob my shop, I woulda shot 'em in the head. But considerin' that ain't the circumstances, I'll make a deal wichya. If ya go find me some cola down at that food store, I'll clear the path to the mall for ya." The man, presumably Whitaker, offered the four survivors who exchanged looks before giving their answer.

"Yeah, alright. You screw us and I will kill you with your own gun." The gambler threatened and he could almost sense the fear radiating off of Whitakers' voice.

"As a gentlemen I promise I will do no screwin', sir." The four survivors shared a look before all agreeing that if this was what they had to do to get past the huge tanker, then so be it.

"Alright, lets roll." Coach waltzed to the front doors of the 'Save for less' store across from the gunshop. They could see that Whitaker had held up some sort of base on top of his shop that seemed safe, more or less.

"Okay, me and Coach will get the cola, Ellis and Nick cover us." Ellis and Nick made a face but Rochelle left no room for arguments, she yanked the door open and sprinted inside with Coach close by. A loud, ringing alarm blared that was loud enough to alert a horde to their location. The two males cursed and opened fire on the horde that was slumping towards them like drunk men.

A disgusting, wretched screech sounded from the roof above and a green, burning, acidic spit ball was spat at them quickly and exploded before spreading in a patch at their feet. It slowly began to burn through the soles of their shoes and the bottoms of their trousers. They immediately ran out of the acids' reach as soon as they felt the liquid collide with their skin.

"Tha' shit burns, man!" Ellis shouted before sniping the infected in the head.

"Ugh, what in the hell did that thing just do?" There was no more time for ranting as Rochelle and Coach ran past them and up to the collection point at the gun store. Rochelle dropped the cola through the gap in the door and watched as a missile plummeted from the roof and soared at the tanker, obliterating the metal to pieces.

"Thanks Whitaker!"

"God be with you, gang." 

They finished the remainder of the horde together before continued on past the rubble from the tanker where more CEDA tents were seen. They shot or hacked a few stray zombies that were in their way, but for the most part of the remaining journey to the mall, it was clear. They rounded another corner were they spotted the vast mall and a small safe house at the entrance.

They all piled into the safe house and promptly collapsed of exhaustion.

They were safe...For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a day late, I said I'd upload it yesterday ;A; I'm sorry I was just really busy; but I'll try to update more often! Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day.


	3. Mall

"Gawh damn, this hurts." Coach groaned as he rubbed his hand along the rubble that pierced his dark skinned back. It hurt like a bitch; that Charger had really done a number on him. If it was just a measly scratch, they easily could've carried on to get to the evac quicker, but he needed time to heal properly. Rochelle approached him with a half full medkit in her hands. He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Baby girl, you're a God sent, but where the hell did you get that?" Rochelle just smiled.

"It was on the table over there." She jerked her thumb to the little wooden desk against the wall in their makeshift safe room. It wasn't cosy, it didn't even deserve the term 'safe'; it was a fucking box that they hardly fit in. But fuck it, it was either this or out there amidst the flesh eating hordes outside.

Anyone who took the latter was clearly fucking insane. Which is the exact reason why Nick barricaded the door when Ellis offered to go get some peroxide to clean Coachs' wounds.

Wait, why was Nick trying to protect the kid from going outside alone? He didn't give two shits about what happened to the kid. But just why? Because he was worried that he'd—no, stop. No, when you're down a teammate, you're fucked. End of story. That's all there is to it.

Fuck, the apocalypse was really getting to his head now.

He shook his head and forced himself to focus on Rochelle who was know unzipping the medkit and pulling out some useful medical supplies. A needle and thread, tweezers and some bandages; there wasn't much in the kit, so she had to make do with what she had. Coach took his shirt off and Nick looked away because that was not a sight he wanted to see right now.

Rochelle sighed as she examined the wounds. They were small, true, but clearly deep and painful; some with even little pieces of rubble wedged in them. She pinched the tweezers around a small stone and carefully pulled it out the mans' back. Coach grunted and she whispered apologetically under her breath.

Once she had removed all of the excess rubble from his back, she then snapped off some string and threaded it through the needle. Coach, already sensing the sounds of the needle and thread working together, shut his eyes tight.

"Coach, I'm sor—"

"Jus' do it, baby girl." Rochelle looked at him sadly before gently piercing the mans' skin over one of the larger wounds. Coach groaned and the reporter pulled the needle through, sewing the thread over the wound securely. She then started on the next stitch, and the next.

It was kind of hard for the reporter to concentrate, as across the room, Ellis was bothering Nick with some stupid ass story. She let a light smile grace her lips though, glad that it was Nick who had to suffer the seemingly never-ending stories (since they never let him finish in the first place).

"—an' then Keith says 'Well, I thought we did a mighty fine job,' to tha old lady, bu' she's blind as a dayum bat an' she jus' goes off on a rant at Keith 'cause she says she paid good money for tha' tire replacemen' bu' 'ey, she still—"

"Ellis."

"—Got 'er tires replaced, righ'? So wha's—"

"ELLIS."

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Calm yer britches, Nick."

"I will, heehaw, if you shut your mouth for five God-damn minutes."

"Ey, Nick?" Oh Jesus Christ the kid was fucking talking to him again; someone give him his gun.

"What." Why Nick answered was beyond him.

"Is Coach gon' be alrigh'?" Now, that surprised him. Looks like Ellis really did acknowledge there was an apocalypse outside that could easily kill you in a matter of seconds in such gruesome and gory ways; the kid actually paid attention to those little things. Where's a calender when you need one? Nick needed to mark this day down as the day that he got nought point one percent of respect for the kid. But of course, he wasn't going to tell the hillbilly shit.

"The fuck am I supposed to know? He got his ass pummelled into the ground by a champion masturbater and you're asking me if he's gonna be okay? Do I look like a psychic to you, Ellis?" He shot back, eyes narrowing.

"Well, shit, Nick. I was only askin'. Sheesh, do ya needa be an asshole all the time?" Ellis frowned, which was unusually uncharacteristic for the normally happy kid.

"I am an asshole; get used to it, Overalls." Nick decided the conversation was over and decided to lay down and roll on his side, his back towards Ellis, and faced the wall before slipping his eyes closed to sleep. He was exhausted after the miles they'd trekked along the streets behind the mall. It was hell, to say the least.

Rochelle was just finishing up wrapping the bandages around Coachs' stitched up wounds on his back before she stood up to admire her work. It was messy and the bandages were already turning a light pink from the blood, but they'd hold for now, thankfully. Coach smiled at her before laying on his stomach to get some rest as well.

The news reporter turned to look at Ellis, pondering what to say but Ellis beat her to it.

"I kin take first watch, if ya want." He offered and Rochelle nodded gratefully.

"That'd be great sweetie, wake one of us up in a couple of hours; make sure you get some rest too, okay?" He nodded, flashing her a toothy grin which she returned with a smile before rolling over on her side to sleep. Her eyes slipped closed fairly quickly and she was asleep in a matter of minutes.

* * *

 

Ellis blinked a couple of times before yawning and rubbing them. Figuring the others needed their rest, he decided to stay up on watch all night; which, thinking about it now, was only going to get him scolded by his teammates. He switched his attention to the sniper rifle in his lap and reloaded clips into it while he awaited the awakenings of the others.

Nick was the first one up, unsurprisingly. With him being all distant towards the team, it made sense for him to be morning person, he probably didn't even trust them yet. He took one look at the mechanic trying hard not to doze off and pinched the bridge of his nose. He shuffled up and onto his feet before walking to Ellis.

Smack.

"Nick! Wha' the actual hell, man?!" Ellis rubbed his sore cheek. Nick'd just slapped him. What on Earth did he do to piss him off this time?

"Didn't you wake anyone else up for watch?" He demanded, glaring at the boy who seemed to shrink down under his gaze.

"Well, uhh, I though' y'all could use tha rest, so I stayed up all nigh'." He shrugged.

"Great. Now you won't be able to shoot shit because you'll fall asleep in the middle of a fucking cluster-fuck knowing you, Overalls." The gambler scoffed before quickly adding, "I can slap you again if you want me to wake you up properly." He smirked.

Ellis shot him a look and muttered something incoherent under his breath.

Rochelle groaned as she opened her eyes slowly and sat up on the hard floor she'd fell asleep on. She glanced at the boys, smiling warmly.

"Morning boys, did you sleep well?" She had that motherly tone about her again, one that she always seemed to use around Ellis; then again, he was only a kid. The mechanic was about to say something but Nick jumped in first.

"The floor is hard as shit, it was fucking freezing. Yes, Rochelle, I had a wonderful sleep. Then again, at least I got sleep." He gestured towards Ellis who was starting to doze off again.

Rochelle was about to answer but Coachs' voice boomed into their ears and they turned to face him. His face contorted into pain but he managed to get up fine, his wounds had recently started to slowly heal, meaning he could move around today.

"You alright, Coach?" Ro asked, walking over to him and picking up her gun off of the floor. He nodded, grinning.

"I feel right as rain, baby girl. We should get movin', that evac ain't gonna wait for us all day!" Though Rochelle was still worried, she grabbed her AK-47 nonetheless and picked up her used medkit. There wasn't much left in the kit, but it was better than having no medical supplies overall. Nick and Ellis grabbed their weapons and waited by the door for the others.

Rochelle helped Coach up and he went to the metal door and lifted the bar up before stepping out of the safe-house and glancing around the deadly quiet and deserted mall.

They rounded a corner where they found a few infected sitting on the floor eating presumably human meat, which all made them feel sick to the pits of their stomach; or, it was just the fact that they hadn't eaten in days. One of the two.

They shot them before continuing up an escalator that had broken down a while ago, there was blood painting the steps leading a trail to where a dead survivor laid. So far, this wasn't looking good for them.

"Maybe...There's still an Evac deeper in." Rochelle muttered, the lack of hope thick in her normally motherly voice.

"There will be, Ro. We'll get outta this." Ellis reassured her which got her to smile, however small it was. Nick just scoffed.

"I hate to burst your bubble, sport, but we're in a mall infested with zombies. On the bright side, we're all probably gonna die."

"Nicholas, I condemn tha' lack of spirit in this team, son." Coach spoke sternly which only caused Nicks' frown to deepen.

"Yes, Dad." He mocked and after that the team was silent.

They walked through a partly broken gate before they froze, terrified. On the other side of the gate, the floor continued, but there was a horde of around a hundred infected awaiting them, some in hazmat suits. The zombies smelled their flesh and looked up at them, eyes hungry, teeth baring. They immediately charged at the four survivors, ready to sink their teeth into their flesh.

"Ah shit. Get back y'all!" Coach ordered and they all started backing up and shooting as fast as they could. But the infected just wouldn't stop coming and wouldn't stop getting closer to them.

A zombie managed to make their way around Ro and sunk their deep claws into her shoulder, making her scream in agony and defenceless as she tried to get the zombie off of her. Nick whipped out his axe and bludgeoned the blade into the back of the zombies' head, making it fall to the ground with a 'thud'.

While Nick had been defending Rochelle, Coach and Ellis had managed to clear the remainder of the horde and were currently grinning at their teamwork. They then made their way over to the gambler and the reporter, worried looks on their faces.

"Baby girl, you alright?" Coach asked, putting a hand on the shoulder that wasn't soaked in blood. She smiled and nodded though the pain was evident in her eyes.

They figured they could check her shoulder later so they continued on, down another second escalator and walking towards a food court, that had Coach looking like a child on Christmas.

But, when they made it to the food court, it was battered to shit. The chairs were knocked over, blood smeared the tables and the worst, in Coachs' opinion anyway, there was no food. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any infected around the area, they mostly thought it was because they'd cleared out the horde earlier.

They made their way past the food court and up yet another escalator, and saw a broken down door that appeared as a ramp. There were lots of shops that surrounded them on this floor, and Nick just couldn't help but make another snide comment.

"Disco pants and haircuts, man, lots of space in this mall." He mumbled.

"'Bout time a store gives a man a haircut while he buys himself some pants." Coach responded.

"I hate your life, Coach." He shook his head.

They continued along the ramp and down a series of hallways until they reached a toy store. The store had glass windows that they would seemingly have to break to get by. Unfortunately, an alarm would sound as soon as the glass was broken, leading to attract all the zombies in the mall.

God damnit.

"Let's just get through this shit!" Coach yelled before he shot the glass and it shattered into the ground, and a blaring ringing sounded as well as loud growls of the oncoming horde.

They didn't waste any time, they shoved and fired at the infected blocking their path to the escalator that led to the next floor where they could turn the alarm off.

"Y'all, they're behind us!" Ellis shouted, sniping some infected behind him. His teammates joined in and they cleared them fairly quickly. Once the hordes had died down, for now, they made a sprint for the next floor.

"Keep going up!" Rochelle hollered, travelling up the escalator. The young mechanic was about to follow when he heard a faint, deep growling behind him. He slowly turned around, fear etching its' way onto his face. He swallowed down the fear and stared at the little hooded, hunched over figure in front of him.

He started backing up when the figure lowered itself into a full pouncing position. It screeched loudly.

"HOODED DUDE—!" He yelled hoping his teammates had heard him, but it was too late. The figure pounced upon him, shoving him on his back and straddling his hips, rendering his legs useless. The figure clawed, scratched and dug its' crimson, deep nails into his skin, shredding the skin off his arms and torso. He screamed in agony as he tried to get the thing off of him by trying to catch its' wrists, but he couldn't.

"GET IT OFF!" He yelled.

On the next floor, it seemed that Coach and Rochelle didn't hear him as they just kept running. But Nick did. And there was a faint moment in his mind where he wondered if he should go back or not; because if he didn't, the kids' fate would've been sealed.

He peered over the glass and looked for where the cries and growls were coming from. He was given a birds eye view of the whole massacre, could see the blood decorating the youngest member's chest like confetti, could see the pain and fear in his eyes. Nick's eyes widened, he couldn't leave the mechanic to die like  _this._

The gambler sprinted down the escalator and to the source of the infected, his gun ready to pile his whole mag into the freak that was causing the kid this pain.

Why did he care this much again? Whatever.

He rounded a corner to see the mechanic pinned to the ground with a hooded infected on top of him that was ripping him to shit. What worried Nick was the fact that the mechanic was struggling to keep fighting back, his arms looked as if they were getting weaker as the seconds ticked by. 

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he ran forward and first kicked the freak off of El before emptying his clip into the thing. It fell to the floor lifeless, blood pooling beneath the corpse.

Nick quickly turned to look at El who was struggling to move. Blood lay in a puddle under him and it leaked from his arms and torso rapidly.

"Ellis?" Nick shook him. Nothing. He checked for a pulse, it was still slightly there, but slowly diminishing the more time he wasted. 

If Nick didn't do something now, this kid was gonna die for sure. So, he swallowed down his pride and scooped the man up in his arms bridal style and ran up the escalator and to where Coach and Rochelle were, which was in the alarm room and it only made him realise that the alarm was deactivated ages ago.

Funny, he could still hear it in his head.

Rochelles' eyes bulged out of her skull as she saw Nick approach her with Ellis unconscious in his arms. She ran forward to them, her hands trying to stop the tears that were already forming in her eyes.

"Nick! I-Is he...—"

He didn't respond. He didn't say a word. He didn't even flinch. If it wasn't for Nick, Ellis would be dead right now. They didn't deserve his reassurances after they'd left him; left them both now to think of it!

He just pushed past them and carried on walking, from the room they were currently in, down the staircase and along the hallway which supposedly led to, hopefully, an evac.

Of course, they weren't that lucky.

The 'evac' was a slaughter house. Corpses, infected and non-infected, decorated the floor as blood splattered the walls messily. The banners were ripped and the glass shattered. All they could do was carry on, nobody was saving them today.

He waltzed up another escalator and spotted a safe house on the other side of the floor. He sprinted there, urgent to get Ellis the medical attention he needed before it was too late.

When they were all inside, Coach barricaded the door while Nick and Ro looked over El. The gambler snatched the kit from Rochelle's hands and ignored her protests as he gently began to clean the wounds, thankful that Ellis was asleep.

 

Coach came and tried to talk to him but he shrugged him off and scolded him; telling him he needed to concentrate. Eventually, both of them left him alone. Nick sighed. Why did he care so much? He'd only known the kid 3 days for Christ's' sake!

_You're going to be the death of me, Ace._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight Nellis in this chapter, nothing hardcore. Just Nick saving Ellis' life and realising that he has to care for this team. 
> 
> Sorry about the wait, yet again, ugh. I was trying to write this three times this week but it just kept dragging on then I got tired and slept. 
> 
> By the way, the next chapter won't jump straight into Atrium because it wouldn't be realistic if Ellis healed in a day; he'll need more time from the wounds he's suffered. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Cx


	4. Supply Run

_"Hey El, you ready?" Keith hollered from the top of his truck that Ellis was allegedly supposed to set on fire in approximately ten seconds._

_This was going to turn into a cluster fuck real fast._

_"Keith, I, uh, don' think this is a good idea..." He hesitated, staring at the matches in his bare hands._

_"Cmon El, don't be a sissy. I'll be fine, I always am, you know? Just light the damn thing!" Keith laughed. Well, technically, he wasn't **always**  alright. Ellis couldn't count on his fingers the amount of times Keith—and sometimes himself if he'd gotten in the line of fire—had taken a trip to their local hospital; where Els' mother would meet them and backhand them over the head for being so stupid. _

_They still did stupid shit after that as well, to be fair._

_"Fine, but if yew get hurt, tha's yer own fault." Reluctantly, Ellis lit the fuse and watched anxiously as the flame travelled upwards and Keith uproared in laughter as the truck went alight and the flames drifted dangerously upwards until they touched the bottoms of Keiths' ripped jeans._

_Well, this went to hell slower than all their other schemes did, so that had to count for something right?_

_"OH SHIT!" Keith yelped as the fire kept travelling up his clothes, burning his skin badly in the process. Ellis' eyes widened and he immediately made a dive for the water hose that they had oh-so smartly brought out with them (though there was nothing smart about this idea. At all.) and aimed it towards where Keith was **supposed** to be standing. _

_Of course, he wasn't._

_Keith lost his balance and toppled over the truck, landing with a sickening crunch and snap as he hit the ground where the flames were present. Ellis cringed at the deafening sound._

_"Keith!"_

* * *

Everything was pitch black, no noise, no sight, just pure and plain nothingness; darkness. Where was he? Was he dead? Was this what Heaven was like, or was he already in hell? If this surely was Hell, well, it was nothing like they'd described it in the books. This place was dark, and seemed that nothing existed here. Well, he'd had a nice life he supposed, he just wished—

"OW! MOTHER FUCKER!" Ellis yelped, bolting upwards immediately as he felt a sharp needle enter his skin, only to get pushed down by his shoulders again so he was laying flat on his back.

"Well, that's not exactly the nicest greeting, Overalls." That suave sonovabitch. It all came flooding back to him in an instant, the infected on top of him clawing his insides out and laying in his own blood while someone carried him to the others. 

He didn't need to ask who'd saved him, he knew Nick had. 

"How long have I been out?" Ellis wet his lips with his tongue, tasting the blood thickly in his mouth. God, this really did fucking suck. It was better than being dead though. 

"Couple of hours, maybe. We have to stay here for a while now because you're injured, which by the way, wouldn't have happened if you'd kept up." He slowly pulled the needle over one of the larger lacerations on the boys' chest, stopping for a second when El made a small whimper. 

"But yew saved me, tha's wha' matters, righ'?" He noticed the way that Nick visibly tensed and stopped his work for a while before slowly threading the needle again. 

"You owe me, Ellis." He spoke again seriously. 

"Yeah, yeah. I know." The Southerner replied.

"Oh Sweetie, you're awake. Thank God." Rochelle walked over to them before looking over Ellis' wounds. "Seems like they'll take a good week for them to heal a bit so they don't hurt as much, but they'll definitely scar." 

"A week? Nah Ro, tha's fine. We can move whenever, we can't stay 'ere long, yanno?" 

"Sweetie as much as I admire your bravery, if Nick hadn't got to you in time, you'd be dead right now. I think we need to stay put for a while, for your sake. Plus, we could use a break, well, Coach definitely could." She gestured to the man snoring in the corner and Ellis wondered how he hadn't awoken to his shouting when he first woke up. 

 "Guess tha's smart." He conceded closing his eyes, having a light doze while Nick stitched up his wounds. 

The minutes ticked by slowly in silence, before Ro decided to break it.

"Do you need any help patching him up, Nick?" Rochelle asked.

"No." He didn't want anybody else to help, and that fact scared him slightly. 

"Why did you go back for him? You made it pretty clear before that you only look out for number one, which is you. So why?" She questioned the gambler as she carefully tended to the scratches on her shoulder. The man snorted in reply. He knew this was coming from a mile away.

"There's only four of us and thousands of living dead. If we're down a teammate, we're fucked, if we  _leave_ each other behind, we're fucked. I may be an asshole, but I went so I'd have someone watching my back. I still only care about myself."

He thanked his lucky stars that he was a good liar. 

Ro didn't buy it though, "Really? So you ran back for a boy you clearly hate and risked getting killed yourself? That's a lot of bullshit and you know it, Nicholas. But alas, I'm not going to dwell on it, I did enough of being nosey in my reporter job." She let a silly smile cross her lips at the memory of listening to her boss' conversation right outside the door with his morning coffee when he opened said door and she spilled his drink all over his new suit. 

"Reporter, huh? Surprising even for you, Rochelle." He smirked over his shoulder at the woman perched on the table. She placed her hand on her hip and snorted.

"You'd know all about ladies' jobs and what's good for them, wouldn't ya?" She replied sassily. "Tell me, suit, what did you do before all of this?" 

"Me? I was rolling in the money, and hookers. That was the life." Shit, remembering his past just made him ache for a cigarette; which was exactly what he needed in a world full of freaks that wanted to rip your guts out around every corner. 

"Why didn't I see that coming..." She mumbled under her breath. Nick pulled the thread off of the needle before tying and securing it on the boys' chest. Shit, he looked bad. He was still bloody and it pained Nick to see him like that; bruised and bloodied, severed and cut up like some sort of meat fest. 

Then again, that's exactly what the Hunter thought he was. 

"You finished?" Rochelle asked, standing behind him and looking down at their hurt teammate. 

"I've stitched him up the best I can, but we're out of medical supplies and bandages. Fucking great."

"Well, there's tons of shops around this mall, right? I'm pretty sure Coach can watch Ellis while we go search some pharmancies." 

"Yeah, because splitting up is such a good idea, Rochelle. And who says I'm going with you?" 

"The person who decided to haul ass in the direction to save Ellis. That's who." Well played, Ro, well played. He couldn't think of a snarky reply to fire back, so he just settled on his usual frown. 

Taking the silence as a positive answer, Rochelle lightly shook Coach until his eyes fluttered open and he gazed at her with a confused expression before sitting up against the wall.

"What is it, baby girl?" He mumbled tiredly, big man probably wasn't used to running for a hell of a long time. 

"Me and Nick are going to go look for some supplies—"

"Hell no. Splittin' up is the last thing we need righ' now, Ro. Boys' hurt, we all needa rest for now, ya hear?" 

"Coach, we're outta medical supplies, bandages mostly. If we don't wrap up Ellis' wounds with something strong then his wounds will easily get infected and be even more difficult to heal in the long run. 

Coach sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Well, don't go too far, young'uns. If ya get into any trouble, haul ass back 'ere, got it?" She nodded before walking over and picking up her AK-47 before kicking Nicks' M16 towards his general direction. He grumbled under his breath but picked it up nonetheless. 

"Stick together and lets only check a few shops, okay? We don't want to get into trouble." 

"Yes, Mom." 

"Seriously? Coach got 'Yes, Dad' and now I get called Mom? I'm not _that_ old." She groaned which just made him chuckle. 

"Didn't think you'd pay as much attention to me, Ro. I like that in a woman." He winked. 

"Do you like women slapping you? Because you're about to get one of those. Come on, let's just check the nearby shops and see if we can find anything." 

 

* * *

They looked around the floor the saferoom was built on and looked around for any sight of a pharmacy. Unfortunately they didn't see one in plain sight, but they decided to check the other shops to see if they could find anything useful. 

Nick rammed the butt of his gun into the glass window of one of the shops making it shatter and crash to the ground, giving them an entrance inside. Rochelle would've scolded Nick about being careful for alarms, but since none had been triggered yet, they were in the clear for now. 

The shop they were in was a clothing store, various different outfits of different sizes and widths and lengths hung, once neatly on coat hangers scattered along the floors. The front desk was smeared with blood and bullet holes with a corpse hanging losely over the cash register, indicating that whoever had tried to escape this store hadn't succeeded. 

They searched behind the desk where Ro found something. They were quite thin but it would work well enough for a makshift bandage. It was a roll of cloth, quite a lot of it actually, that could cover up wounds and shield them from infections. They wouldn't work as well as bandages of course, but there was no point in them risking their lives for one medicaly supply when they could just make do with what they had here. 

They headed back to the safe house which wasn't that far away luckily and barricaded the door once they were inside. It seemed that the infected had left them alone, since they hadn't encountered one mindless, flesh eating freak on their scout around. 

They bandaged Ellis' wounds before letting the boy rest, like Coach was too apparently. He hadn't moved from his position since they'd left and they both decided that maybe a nap wasn't such a bad idea after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Atrium will be next chapter becauseeeee REALISM PPL. xD
> 
> Anywhooo, hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry if it's slightly shorter than the last! ;A;


	5. Atrium

Ellis was the first one to awake the next morning. He had spent most of the night just tossing and turning and trying to find a position that was comfortable enough to sleep in so he wouldn't tear his stitches; that was the _last_  thing he wanted right now. Anyway, it was quite strange watching the room him and his teammates were in at the morning, he was just used to getting a slap from Nick and practically being shoved out the safe room.

He was happy he woke himself up today. 

He shifted his weight into a sitting position before groaning as his injuries protested with his movements. Despite the pain, he hauled himself up off of the floor and shuffled over to the safe room door where he could see through the bars.

He looked up at the glass roof and saw the shimmering sun shining back at him. It was near early morning, he supposed, he didn't have a watch to see the time so his guess was as good as any. 

They had to move now; they couldn't waste any more daylight hours, trying to find a way out of a mall in complete darkness was a fool's idea, and more than likely it would get them all killed. 

He crouched down next to Rochelle and shook her shoulder lightly. After a few attempts her soft, brown eyes fluttered open and as soon as she saw Ellis, she was quite concerned. She sat up fully and glanced over him.

"Ellis, honey, are you sure you should be moving right now? If you're still in pain, we could always stay here another—" The mechanic cut her off.

"Ro, we can' stay 'ere fer too long. We've gotta get outta this mall an' fast, an' I think I jus' got an idea..." Ellis was staring at one of the tattered posters on the wall, it was partly torn but you could make out the words and the picture.

It was an old man standing in front of a stock car. She watched Ellis get up and walk to the poster and stare at it intensely. While Ellis practically drooled over the poster, Rochelle thought she could at least wake her teammates up so they could get moving as soon as possible. 

"I think I saw my ex-wife." Were Nicks' words as Rochelle kicked him in the shoulder to awake him after shaking him thoroughly didn't work. 

"Do I look like your ex-wife, Nick?" She shot back, silently testing his patience. 

"I don't think I could stand living with you, Ro." He joked but sent a sly wink her way. She scoffed and took to waking Coach up, which was definitely going to be a harder task. 

Nick grabbed his M16 from the table and scanned the room until his eyes fell on the Southerner standing a metre away from him, glaring at the poster plastered on the wall in front of him. He walked closer to him and read the poster in his head.

"Who the hell is Jimmy Gibbs Jr?" He questioned, more to himself than his teammates. 

Of course, he got an answer anyway. 

"The best stock car racer of all time...Try readin' a book sometime." Ellis mocked and Nick narrowed his eyes.

"At least I can probably read." 

"Now tha's jus' uncalled fer, serious." 

"Boys! Will there ever be a morning where me and Coach don't wake up to arguing—" They both shrugged, but continued to glare at eath other. "—We need to get moving quickly if we wanna make it to the evac—"

"Girl, as much as I hope for tha' to be true, I honestly think there ain' an evac 'ere. Let's just get movin' and see if we can find somethin'." Coach ordered and they she nodded before picking up her gun, as did Ellis and waiting by the safe room door.  

Coach glanced at the poster and sighed sadly, there wasn't going to be an easy way out of here.

"Let's roll." Rochelle removed the bar from the lock on the metal door and pushed it open to reveal a dimly lit hallway. There were a couple of infected laying in the path but they took care of them relatively quickly before continuing down it and turning past a corner. 

They walked through another smaller hallway before they were met with a secure scaffolding. They began to walk across it and they all recognised where they were in the mall; the atrium. It was vast and there were three floors in total; the ground floor where closed down shops were, the second floor which had maintenance and janitor rooms and a bridge that followed around to the window of the exit and finally the top floor where shut down shops and 'SALE' posters scattered the walls. 

They waltzed across the scaffolding where they were greeted with an elevator. Seeing no other route to go, they piled inside it and pressed the button to go to the ground floor. 

They stood in relative silence and Ellis glanced around the atrium though the glass of the elevator. He looked down and that's when he saw it, in all it's blaze and glory, in a tattered blue pain, was Jimmy Gibbs Jrs' stock car itself. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way out of here for them. He had been so deep in thought he almost didn't recognise Rochelles' voice when she spoke to him.

"What's on your mind, Ellis?" 

"Y'all remember those ads we saw on the way in? Well, I think I've gotta an idea how to get us some wheels..." He smirked before turning around fully to his teammates, who seemed surprisingly intrigued. 

"Down there is Jimmy Gibbs Jrs' stock car, y'all. If we kin gas it up, we can drive it on outta 'ere!" He exclaimed enthusiastically watching as his teammates sighed in defeat and agreed.

"Hey Overalls, there's one major flaw in your 'brilliant plan' per se, where the fuck are we even going to _find_  the gas?" The gambler pointed out blatantly and Ellis realised how much of a long shot this plan really was. Even Coach and Rochelle looked like they had the same question as Nick.

"Uhh, well, they don' gas up these cars at car shows, so I woulda figured tha' the gas cans are prolly scattered around 'ere." He guessed, shrugging slightly. Nick scoffed.

"It's as good a plan as any, Nick." Rochelle stated, coming to his rescue.

"We'll run all around this mall looking for damn cans just to get mauled to death." He mumbled pessimistically. Coach nudged his shoulder.

"Well young'un, you're free to spend the rest of your days in an elevator if you want." 

"Ah, screw it, let's go." He responded as he felt the elevator hit the floor. It made a 'ding' sound before the doors opened to reveal a gift from Heaven above. 

A single, orange painted can was laying on the ground in front of the elevator. They all scrambled out and Rochelle picked up the can before sprinting to their escape vehicle. She unscrewed the cap off of the gas can and flicked open the fuel tank on the car. She poured it in before gesturing Ellis over.

"How much gas do you think it needs?" He pondered for a while, checking the fuel tank before turning to face her.

"About nine more, I think." He sighed, the likeability of them finding nine cans was near enough to impossible. But they had to try. 

There was a loud, ear-piercing shriek of the oncoming horde. They bashed and clawed at doors and smashed and shattered glass as they ran rapidly at the four survivors. They were indefinitely surrounded, but they kept firing, kept the bullets flying. 

It took their time but it was successful, they didn't dare take their fingers off of the trigger until they had seen every single one of those mindless, flesh eating freaks on the ground motionless. 

"Y'all, me an' Ro have got the second floor, y'all get the top alright!" Coach demanded before the two took off in the other direction. Ellis and Nick both rolled their eyes but walked to the stairs leading to the top floor anyway. 

Once there, they checked a few rooms, the outskirts of shops but they couldn't find anything. Then, something caught the gamblers' eye. There was a small scaffolded room, with wooden bords and planks outside. He walked to the room and saw two gas cans laying on the floor. 

He ushered Ellis over and together they both took a can each and walked along the top floor. They peered over the ledge to see Coach and Rochelle tossing the cans down to save time. They both followed suit, chucking their cans over and making them land near the car. 

They continued along the top floor and crossed a bridge where something incredibly surprising happened. An infected—nothing out of the ordinary about that, mind you—was wearing a racers' suit and had grey, thining hair on his scalp, his eyes were a vibrant yellow and his teeth that he bared at them were bloodied and black. 

"Holy shit." Nick gaped before open firing the infected Jimmy Gibbs, making his brains splatter on the wall behind him and his torso became decorated with bullets. He fell to the ground lifeless, still bleeding a bloody heap. 

"Aw man...Jimmy man, I'm sorry—" Ellis kept on mumbling things to the dead corpse which all in all, Nick found quite bizarre but he kept looking around for gas cans, and that's when he heard it. A faint, insane like giggle was heard, but he could hardly recognise it over Ellis' incoherent babbling.

Nick ran to the boy and put a hand over his mouth, making the other jump up in surprise but he didn't make any other reaction other than that.

"Shut up." He demanded before adding, "Do you hear that?" He removed his hand from Ellis' mouth.

"The laughin'? Yeah." His voice quieted on the last word. It seemed the giggling was getting even closer, it sounded like it was right behind them. 

Out of literally _nowhere_ the freak launched itself up and clung to Nicks' back like its' life depended on it. It was a small thing, but it definitely could cause some damage. It clawed at the gamblers' back, neck and face frantically, digging its' nails in and tearing the skin away. 

"GET THIS THING OFF MY BACK! ELLIS!" He yelled for help and watched as Ellis aimed his sniper and fired a few bullets, luckily missing Nicks' head in the process, into the infected but it wouldn't die. He risked a glance behind him to see he was heading for the edge of the bridge. To where all that would meet him would be a stone cold floor where his body parts would splatter and ruin messily.

Well shit.

The Jockey dove him over the edge and he barely registered Ellis yelling out his name once before nothing. He shut his eyes tight, waiting for the impact. The impact that would end his life for—

He was jolted in mid air and suddenly, he wasn't falling, he wasn't crashing down to his death. He forced himself to open his eyes and he looked up; his green eyes' met the kids' blue ones in a clash. But this was different, there wasn't a usual scowl behind either of their eyes. There was an odd sense of understanding, of gratitude, of the longing to know the other was okay. 

And before he knew what had happened, he knew this was more than that. The kid hadn't pulled him up yet, but he didn't mind. All he cared about was Ellis right now. He could fall to his death but as long as the mechanic didn't jump down after him, he felt strangely fine.

And then Ellis was pulling Nick up, back on to the ledge, and even when they were back up, their hands were still clutching to the others' wrist, maybe too painfully, but neither could be bothered to let go or loosen their grip. 

It seemed like they hated each other, yes, but now it seemed like they couldn't let go of each other. 

Nick slowly pulled his hand out of Ellis' grip and let it fall to his side. 

He'd never admit, but it wasn't hard to get lost in Ellis' eyes. 

"Yer necks' bleedin'," The mechanic pointed to the blood streaming down his neck at a rapid pace. The suited man grazed his fingertips along the back of his neck and removed them, sure enough, there was blood. 

"Ro's got the medkit, she can clean this up when we get back down." Nick picked his gun up off of the ground and gave it a once over. They started for the stairs when yells and whoops of their teammates reached their ears, as well as a roar that they knew was _not_ human.

"KEEP SHOOTIN'!" Was Coach's yell and the duo immediately sprinted down the stairs as fast as they could and froze in fear when they saw the beast.

It was muscular beast, large and a stained pinkish colour. It roared loudly as it picked up a piece of rubble and hauled it at Rochelle. She took cover and hid behind a store. When the rubble made contact with it, it smashed. 

Ellis looked through his scope and sniped the infected rapidly in the back. Nick followed suit and started firing as well. Considering the thing had been focused on Coach barely running away from him, when he felt the bullets he turned around and chucked a large chunk of wood at Nick and Ellis. 

"Get down!" Nick shouted before pulling Ellis down barely before the wood hit him. The freak then began to charge for them but Rochelle had already got them covered.

She fired round after round of her AK47 into the back of the charging beast. It then turned to her, but she had _no fucking mercy_ at that moment. She kept firing until the beast fell at her feet, dead. 

"Damn, girl." Coach laughed, clapping her on the back as he went to collect the other cans. He laid them at the podium the car sat on. 

"How many did'ja find?" The mechanic questioned.

"Altogether, including the ones you guys threw down, we have eight I think. We're two short." Rochelled conceded and she started pouring the gas into the fuel tank with the help of Ellis.

After they had poured all the gas in, they discussed whether or not they should look for the other two cans, if there was any. But a scream of the oncoming infected quickly silenced that agreement. 

They all scrambled into the car; Nick and Coach at the front and Rochelle and Ellis in the back. 

"Aw, I wanted ta drive." Ellis complained, pouting. 

Nick started the car and reversed off of the podium quickly, before stepping on the pedal full speed and driving straight towards the window.

"Nick, that's a window!" Rochelle screamed from the back and all of them were quickly complaining that they'd die if Nick did this. 

Fuck it. 

Nick drove straight through the window, making the glass shatter all around them and the car sped right through the infected outside the exit before he gained control of the wheel and steered onto the quiet, abandoned road. 

It wasn't very quiet after that, thanks to his teammates laughs and whoops that they were alive, and right now he didn't care and he joined in. 

_They were alive..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be posted yesterday, mind you. But my fucking computer died and after i'd written 3000 WORDS it all disappeared when i turned it back on and I'd been writing it for two hours. 
> 
> It really sucked. 
> 
> But it's here now, haha. 
> 
> Also, I have a one week break from school! This means that I'll be able to update reguarly the next week since I'm not focusing purely on my exams :) 
> 
> I might be able to get out a chapter every two days next week, so watch out for new chapters! :3
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. 
> 
> Oh, and I didn't let Ellis drive because he's still injured, so him being stuck in a fixed position and having to stay awake to drive would've wore him out.


	6. On the road

Honestly, Nick didn't even know why he decided to drive through the fucking window, but then it seemed like the only option and the only good idea he had to get them the hell out of that infested mall.

Looking back on it, it probably wasn't such a good idea. Hell, it was fucking insane.

Because of his brilliant plan to drive through the exit of the mall, Coach had a large swelling around his already injured knee, proving that he had hurt his knee during the crash through. Rochelle had a reasonably sharp cut starting at her forehead and trailing down the side of her cheek; luckily it wasn't too deep and it didn't look too painful, but if they didn't cover it, it'd get infected and worse. Ellis shoulder was bleeding, due to a bit of glass splintering his shoulder and embedding it in his skin at a rapid pace. It wasn't too big, but you couldn't class it as small anyday. Nick had a long cut on his arm as well as the cuts on the back of his neck from the Jockey, that wasn't too deep either, but looking at his teammates injuries that he had caused, only made him feel guilty.

Guilt; such a strange emotion. It comes and goes at the weirdest of times, even if what you've done is only a little thing, most people feel guilt straight after they've done it. Nick, on the other hand, was hellbent on the fact that he was positive that he would never feel guilt; he would never feel the knots in his stomach tighten thinking of the things he'd caused, he'd just shrug it off and get on with his life.

Well, that's what happened in the past, at least.

Whenever Nick did something wrong in the past, he wouldn't give a shit. He would drink himself stupid if the incident effected him more than he'd like to admit, but now, it was so much more different. He was forced to give a shit because of one reason.

He has a team depending on him for their survival.

And he is depending on his team for his survival.

He found it funny, watching it all add up, that a guy like him would ever have to depend on anyone for anything. It didn't make sense to him, he hated emotions and feelings.

Purely because he couldn't understand them, and that's what bothered him.

His emotions had been throwing him through a loop lately; of course he was the same cynical, pessimistic bastard, but there was something different there as well. There was fear, anxiety, maybe a twinge of hope that he'd survive with his team, and love—

Wait, what? Love? For one, that's a strong word that he clearly doesn't know the meaning of, he didn't even remotely love his ex-wife, and who could he love in this team? He hadn't shown any attraction or connection with any of his teammates, so why was he feeling like this?

And then, like a train at full speed, it hit him. And it hit him fucking hard.

He was instantly thinking about the moment in the Atrium, where he was sure he was going to be a dead man; a bloodied corpse on the broken ground, his remains being feasted on by the undead around him. Except that didn't happen. He didn't fall or break every single damn bone in his body on the impact, he was hauled back up by one person he never thought he could have a feeling so deep for.

Ellis.

That naïve, innocent, optimstic mechanic. The man who had saved him, in more ways than one, it seemed, because now he cared. He cared what happened to this damn team and call it favouritism, but he cared more about the mechanic than the other two, for some unknown reason.

Even though that 'unknown' reason was totally known.

When the younger man got caught by a Smoker in the hotel, he shot the infected purely because he didn't want it to bother them later on and potentially injure more people. If he would've gone back to that moment, he would've shot that tongue-snaring bastard until he was satisfied with how dead it was.

Sure, he teased the kid, he occasionally ('all the time' in Rochelles' eyes) argued with the kid, but he cared more than he let on. Now, he felt protective over Ellis, even if it had only been a couple of days of the team being together.

All of these feelings, just over a simple incident...

But that's where he was wrong, the incident with the Jockey was not 'simple'; there was nothing 'simple' about it. He was supposed to be dead right now, yet he wasn't. Just because of Ellis, he was alive.

And that was why this probably bothered him so much.

He had been so deep in thought, too deep, in his opinion, that he hadn't paid attention at all to what Coach was saying next to him in the passenger seat. The bigger man was mumbling something about cheeseburgers last time he checked, but now his tone was serious and slightly irritated. This couldn't be good.

Of course it wasn't going to be good, this is the zombie apocalypse after all, nothing goes your way forever.

"We're runnin' low on fuel." Nick started listening as those words left Coachs' mouth. "Gonna have to wake the young'uns up to search for some too."

He glanced in the rear view mirror to see Rochelle and Ellis sleeping on either sides of the car; though he could tell the mechanic was in pain, the way his shoulder was in a uncomfortable angle and the way he flinched every time he accidentally brushed it against the car seats. They'd have to take a look at it.

He then checked the fuel metre, showing that it was near the empty mark on the scale. They'd surely run out soon, meaning that if they carried on driving now, they'd have to find more gas tanks. If they stopped now, it would be easier.

He slammed on the brakes and pulled onto the side of the road before turning the car off and facing his teammates, all of them awake from the sudden stop.

"Why are we stopping?" Rochelle rubbed her eyes and yawned quietly, giving the men at front a questionable look.

"Sorry, girl, but we've gotta look for some gas. We're runnin' low and we can't get to N'awlins without a vechile." Coach explained, already half out the car door. The others followed suit; getting up and stretching their legs and maneuvering out of the stock car. They opened up the back of the car where their weapons and the kit lay. They all picked up their items and stood by the car discussing their plan of action.

"Should we look for some supplies while we're 'ere? I mean, we may as well, bein' low on kits an' all..." Ellis suggested, gesturing to his wounded shoulder for a moment.

"I still have a few supplies if you want to use them, sweetie. If you need any help just ask us, alright?" She handed the kit over to him and he unzipped it before leaning against the car and pulling out some tweezers. He stared at the metal contraption long and hard. God damnit he didn't want to have to do this.

He lined up the tweezers next to the piece of glass wedged in his shoulder and shut his eyes tightly as he gripped the glass around the metal, but he just didn't have the guts to get it out.

What if he shoved it in deeper? What if it got infected after that? However he didn't let these things bother him, he looked at the good side and tried to just focus on getting the glass out his skin.

And then, a hand was over his and guiding the tweezers along the glass. From the way the calloused skin felt against his own, he knew who was helping him. He'd known because it was the same feel of the skin he'd gripped on the mans' wrist.

Together, the two men eased the glass out of the youngers' skin, making the boy whimper in pain as it finally was pried out. The gambler then opened up the kit again and rummaged through it for a cleaning ointment. 

"Thanks." Ellis simply muttered but groaned in pain as Nick rubbed the cream over his now bleeding shoulder.

"Don't worry about it." He answered softly before going back to cleaning. Once he was done, he grabbed some gauze and bandages before tightly wrapping them around his shoulder and securing them tightly, but not tight enough to cause the boy any physical pain.

The mechanic was stunned. Nick was _helping_ him? Not insulting him or being an usual jackass? Maybe it was because he had saved Nick's life, but weren't they just even now? Or was the gambler generally concerned for him?

It was an insane thought to say that he was. 

When Nick made sure Ellis was fine, he got to work on his own wounds, bandaging the back of his neck as they had already began to scar and stopped bleeding a while ago; there was nothing else he could do for the scratches. 

After the boys had nursed their injuries, Nick handed the kit back to Rochelle. There was a few things left in it, but not many. They'd need to find some new kits quickly so if anyone got hurt, they were prepared. 

"Alright, y'all. I can see a warehouse in the distance from 'ere. Don't look too far but it could be stocked with supplies—"

"Or, stocked with infected that could kill us." Nick jumped in. 

"Oh shut up, Nicholas. Point is, we can check it out and see what we find. May not be much, but it's worth a shot, ya hear?" Coach explained, recieving a nod from his companions. After they'd agreed, they set off for the warehouse.

The warehouse was nothing special, it was an old, metal, rusty building that looked abandoned _before_ the apocalypse, let alone after. The door was barricaded and jammed with a lock, but Coach had managed to knock it down using his 'superior-strength' as he had called it, (though Nick just thought it was because the man had a lot of meat on his bones) and they went on inside. 

Once inside, they looked around the place. It was relatively in good condition, as if someone had tried to renovate it and buld some sort of safe house of their own in the warehouse. It had a few cans of food which they took and two first aid kits in the bedroom, where they found two corpses lying on a bed together with bullets through both their brains.

Despite the sight, at least they died together, in each others' arms. 

They then went down to the basement altogether, they'd seen what had happen to people who went into dark places alone. They either became the victim of something horrible, or were simply never seen again, presumed dead. 

They'd searched a boiler room, where they found nothing but leaking water pipes and extinguishers plastered to the walls. They then searched a different room, where Lady Luck granted their wishes. Five gas cans.

Okay, so it was half the amount they needed, but they took what they could get, strapping one to each others' back, Coach carrying two, and starting out the house. As they left the basement though, there was a deep gurgling noise, a sound one makes when they don't feel too good, or more detailed, feel sick.

All in all, it could've just been a zombie eating a corpse or something, but that theory was quickly shut down when they encountered an obese infected coated with warts and boils all over his face and body. 

"Oh shit, fat guy!" Rochelle yelled as she cocked her AK-47 but it was too late. The thing doubled forward and vomited over all of them. They all grimaced and felt like throwing up on the spot, but due to the circumstances, they couldn't. 

There was an oncoming screech of infected as the horde started clawing at the barricades along the windows and the door. Coach, who had been closer enough to the Special Infected, got a clear shot and the thing exploded, sending more vomit over him.

The horde broke the broke down the make-shift boards and planks and started charging at the group of four. They opened fire, relieved that the horde was only coming at them rapidly from one way, meaning they couldn't get attacked from behind. 

The infected died down just as easy as they had came and they were immediately hauling ass back to the stock car as screeches of the dead raised chills among their spines. They were pretty sure they heard the scream of a Hunter too, which only made them uncap the gas tanks faster.

They poured all of the remaining gas in and jumped in the car, this time with Coach driving. They probably didn't have enough, but it'd do, and they needed to get the hell out of there. As the car ran over several infected at once, they could only really hear one voice amidst all the screaming.

"There's alread blood on my suit, as well as organs and brains, but now there's _vomit_  too? This apocalypse can kiss my ass." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started to drift off while I was writing this, it's so late where I am lol. 
> 
> As you probably noticed with the chapter before Atrium, I'm going to slip some smaller chapters in between the proper ones, if that makes any sense.
> 
> So, this chapter is an example of that. Instead of skipping them straight to The Passing, I showed their car journey and them getting extra gas, searching for supplies, encountering infected etc.
> 
> These chapters won't be as long as say the finale, as Atrium was a good 2500+ words long, but they will be significant in the future, so don't skip out on em! xD
> 
> Or some might be long, because this one sure as hell was, in my books anyway. 
> 
> Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you have a great day. 
> 
> Oh, and I feel the need to say this: *ahem* Thank you so much for the lovely comments you leave on the various chapters! Thank you so much for your continued support! <33
> 
> P.S: Oh, and for those who are reading this purely for Nellis (Which would be me too, don't worry XD) there will be more of that lovey-dovey sappy shit to satisfy your shipping needs as soon as The Passing chapters start. 
> 
> Because Nicks' gonna be a jealous trash pile hurr. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	7. Riverbank

"Dear Lord, why did I ever leave Savannah..." Coach sighed, dragging his gloved hand down his face as he looked at the bridge before them, effectively blocking their exit with Jimmy Gibbs' car perched in front of it.

"Y'know, me an' my buddy Keith were once on a bridge jus' like this one 'ere! So, Keith—" The mechanics' voice was a soft hum in all of their ears, too lazy to actually bother to interrupt him for once, just simply letting him talk.

"Hear that?" A woman asked, up on the bridge above them to her two teammates who stood on either side of her. 

"Yeah." One of her male teammates answered, before the girl walked to the very edge of the bridge, leaning against the railings.

"—So I raised the bridge an' well, didja know cars could float? For a lil while at least?—" Ellis continued, blabbering on about how Keith somehow got attacked by a bear on the bridge and his car got thrown off or some crazy shit like that.

"Hello down there!" The woman shouted down at the four survivors below. All of them stared at her, wide eyed.

"Is that a survivor?!" Nick yelled, questioning his eye sight for a moment. 

"Oh thank God, I thought I was the last woman on Earth!" Rochelle laughed under her breath nervously, deeply happy inside to see another female still walking this death trap named Earth.

"Yeah, I know that feeling..." She sighed. "Nice car, dude!" She smiled at Ellis, batting her eyelashes slightly, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain conman, but it went straight over the Southerners' head.

He simply stared, eyes wide, cheeks slightly flushed, at the _gorgeous_  girl on the bridge above him. Her scarlet, slightly bloodied, zipped up jacket, her auburn hair tied up in a messy pony-tail with a few strands dangling in front of her rosy face. She gave him a sickeningly sweet smile as he continued to fawn over her. She darted her green irises to him.

_Man, oh, man, I jumped Jimmy Gibbs's car through a plate glass window, and I just met the purdiest girl I've ever seen..._

"Hey, Heehaw," 

"Ellis?"

"Overalls."

"Huh? Wha'?" He looked at his teammates, confused. He hadn't been paying attention at all, he'd only just been staring at the—He quickly stopped before he embarrassed himself.

"Sweetie, are you gonna answer her?" Ro added, smirking at him. Ellis swallowed down his nervousness and looked up the girl who had been smiling at him the past few minutes, amused and flirtatiously. 

"Well, hello! Heh..hello... He-howdy, uhh, beautiful weather, huh?..." He gestured up to the pitch black, foggy, dark clouds that were currently pissing on them. "We're having a, uhh... Hubba. Oh, God, I'm too nervous to talk to her, man; one of y'all better do this." He walked back, away from the bridge, his shoulders slumped.

Nick felt anger creep up inside him at the girl on the bridge but he pushed it aside, stating it as nothing. Oh, how wrong he was.

"You've been killin' zombies for the better part of two days, boy, you can talk to a girl." Coach grinned.

"Naw, I can't man! Look at her..." 

"'Ey, can y'all lower the bridge down for us?" Coach asked the woman.

"No can do," Another voice sounded up on the bridge, a gruff, deep one, indicating it was a male, "The generators' outta gas. But be calm, we're cops." 

"That guy's no cop." Nick grumbled.

"So if we make it to the other side, can you help us lower it?" Rochelle shouted up to the man, who smirked down at her.

"Anything for you, little lady—" The man was suddenly cut off by loud shouting below.

"Well climb down you big ape and help us!" The gambler hollered, scowling at the man in the vest above.

"Go to hell, Colonel Sanders." Rochelle had to suppress a giggle from the insult. 

"Hey hey, boys, alright, we'll get to the other side!" She shouted back up, watching the two other survivors give them a thumbs up and walk back along the bridge out of sight. "You know it's gonna be bad if they wouldn't risk it." 

They opened up the trunk of the stock car where they'd stored their weapons and supplies. They each took out their weapons and Coach and Rochelle took a medkit, the boys stating they didn't need one. Once their weapons were locked and loaded, they started out on to the streets. On the side of one of the buildings, a banner was hung up _'Historic Under the River tour'_ scribbled messily along it. 

"'Ey, I heard about this under the river tour, supposed to be pretty damn good!" Coach nodded towards the banner. 

"Well, if we can't go over the river we can always try under." Ro agreed.

They carried on, shooting the bare minimum of infected they could, since they had mostly been attracted by their shouting anyway, so they could save ammo and wouldn't attract any more. 

They went up some steps leading to some sort of parking lot, where broken and battered cars scattered the area, some even upside down and crushed badly. 

As they crosses through the lot, they were greeted with an apartment flat with shattered windows and mouldy bricks that were coated in blood. They shot the infected outside the area before, with the help of Coach, unbarricading and yanking one of the glass doors open. 

Inside, it was a wreck. Glass decorated the bloodied floor and infected lay, hopefully dead, along the tiles, spreading a sickening stench of death through the air, getting inhaled when ever one of the four survivors breathed in. It was toxic.

"Let's try upstairs." 

Together, they headed up the surprisingly small staircase and they separated into the two apartments available to them. They were both equally as bad, but one thing caught Rochelles' eye in the corner of the room; a foot locker. 

Sounded like a pretty bizarre thing to store in a zombie apocalypse, but what was inside was definitely welcomed to the group. It was stored with a large supply of pipebombs and pain pills. She ushered for them all to come and stack up on the supplies so nicely presented for them; they never really knew how long they would go without supplies like this. 

After their little pit-stop, they exitted the apartment and started along another street that sent them on the other side of a blocked bus behind them. The smell of their blood was intoxicating to the infected, making them come out of their makeshift hiding places to charge at the four, teeth gnawing at their gums and arms outstretched, ready to dig their nails in and feast.

The survivors opened fire, blasting every single one of the living dead until they fell to the floor lifeless and motionless, only movement coming from them being the slight twitch of their corpses. 

Walking once again, they made their way up the deserted, quiet street until they were met with some more apartments, these ones bigger than the last. 

They walked inside just to start coughing from the sawdust coating the atmosphere. The doors were just shards, no frames or hinges, the windows were luckily intact and the floors were partly destroyed with holes in them; you had to watch your step or you might just fall on through to the floors below.

They made their way through the apartments, managing to scavenge a bile jar, an adrenaline and some ammo which Rochelle decided to store in her kit in case anyone needed it. 

After exitting the apartment building, they crossed a bridge which led to a little field with bushes and flowers decorating the grass, though it'd been ruined by the zombies long ago. It seemed like too much of scenic route for an apocalypse, after all. The closer they walked through the field, the louder a certain sobs were becoming.

"Hey Rochelle," Ellis started then. "Now don't spare my feelin' none. Buy do ya think I got any shot with that girl?" He asked nervously, making the reporter smile and turn to face him.

"Ellis, ask yourself, what would Keith do?" 

"Oh man, Ro, that reminds me—"

"Girl, what are you doin'?!" Coachs' voice interrupted their conversation and it occured to Rochelle what could've happened if she wasn't careful. She was a second away from an onslaught of Ellis' stories.

"Ah, I wasn't thinking!" She mentally slapped herself and tried not to sound rude, but when she glanced at Ellis, he didn't seem to mind. He still had that silly smile plastered to his face and it looked as if he was used to being told to shut up now. Though she wouldn't admit it, but that very thought made her feel quite guilty.

"Is someone beating a horse or what?" Nick jumped in, making the other survivors look at him confused. They stayed silent then it hit their ears.

"Y'all hear that cryin'?" The mechanic asked, cocking his sniper rifle and scanning the area. 

"This way." Coach pointed to bright lights not too far away from them as well as a white tent and tables and chairs near the place they were heading. 

They definitely didn't expect what they really found. 

"A wedding?" Rochelles' eyes widened, gazing around until her eyes fell on a single, crouched down sobbing figure at the altar. 

"Wedding dress, crying...This is bringing back some bad memories," Nick muttered under his breath, shaking his head. 

"Y'see this wedding 'ere? I'm takin' it as a sign, I should totally marry that girl." Ellis smiled dreamily, painting images of a white-picket fence and a nice house in with his family in his head. Nick clenched and unclenched his fists as his eye twitched.

"Marrying her is the _last_ thing you should do." He tried to sugarcoat his jealousy to make it sound more insulting. 

" _What?"_

"Ellis, trust me, all women are emotional wrecks that will eventually kill you, okay? You're about to get mauled to death." The more the two spoke, the louder the noises of the woman in front of them got, her cries turning into low growls as her crimson eyes flickered upon the two talking men. Rochelle tapped Nicks' shoulder rapidly.

"Will you guys shut up?!" She gestured to the undead bride. They immediately quieted. It was silent for a while, the four just watching the bride intensely.

"Anyone see the wedding cake?" Coach asked breaking the silence.

"Coach, no time for cake." The gambler smirked at the disappointed look on Coach’s face. 

"Guys, I think we should just sneak around her...Let's try not to bother her too much, she doesn't look like an average zombie..." Rochelle suggested, and with that they were slowly creeping around the woman.

Nick went first, getting by pretty easily and waited for the others to catch up. Ellis went next, barely getting by as the woman noticed him frantically and tried to swipe him once with her claws, which he dodged luckily, before turning back and bobbing her head up and down, sobbing once more. Rochelle went next.

And _that_  is where it all went to hell. 

She had accidentally brushed up against the bride, which was enough to send her on a frenzy; she swiped the reporter quickly, sending her down on the ground as she screamed and continued to claw and scratch her stomach and torso, leaving it no more than shreds and flesh. Rochelle screamed as her blood flew above before it rained down on her corpse once again.

Coach was there in a matter of seconds, lining up his shotgun to the brides' temple and pulling the trigger. The womans' head exploded as her now decapitated body fell limp. 

All of the screaming coming from both of the women had caused infected to immediately be attracted to their location, breaking out of rooms and jumping over fences towards the survivors, the flesh smell of food fresh in their noses. 

"Here they come! Ellis, Nick, defend me an' Ro!" Coach ordered, hauling the girl up into his arms, cradling her close to his chest. He ran past the two boys, in search of a safehouse, which he spotted not too long away. 

As Coach ran to get Ro somewhere safe, Nick and Ellis stayed behind, shooting and bashing the hordes' heads in. 

Without the extra firepower of their other two teammates, the men had to rely on each other to get out of this particular scenario alive.

As one reloaded, the other covered them. They couldn't lose a teammate now and they defended each other like their lives depended on it, which ironically, was exactly the case. It wasn't because they had suddenly gotten closer together—Pfft. 

It took their time, but they were successful; just as they saw Coach sprint into a safehouse and slam the door behind him, tending to Rochelle quickly before they bled out. 

"Because leaving us was the best idea. Of-fucking-course." He spat, "You okay, Overalls?" 

"I'm fine. But I'm purdy sure that Coach only ran to help Ro, otherwise she might not make it..." He felt ill at the thought. 

"She'll be fine. She's a tough cookie, right—" As if Lady Luck was just trying to mess with them again, a long, pink appendage shot out of one of the bushes and encircled around Ellis' neck, chest and waist, dragging him into the bush away from Nick.

"Nick!" The boy cried as he was being dragged. 

The gambler immediately charged into the bush to save the Southerner, his heart was thumping so loud in his ears he didn't even acknowledge the growling coming from the bush either, his thoughts were just focussed on saving Ellis, and fast. 

As he rounded the bush just to see the Smoker pull Ellis against his chest and start to slash at his back, the tongue tightening every second, he raised his rifle to fire but he didn't even get to pull the trigger. He was immediately thrown on his back with an angry Hunter straddling his legs. His rifle fell to his side and the Hunter began to rip his chest up into ribbons. He groaned and tried to fight the Hunter back the best he could, to no avail. His blood scattered around him. He was determined to save Ellis, and he wasn't giving up now.

He tried to shift his weight to one side, knocking the Hunter off of balance and used the time to get a few good punches in to the Hunters' face, making it growl louder and wince when the fist made contact with its' grey face and empty eye sockets. But the Hunter jumped straight back on him moments later and began tearing into him again. 

"Ni-ick..." Ellis choked out, trying to pull out his pistol from his holster and shoot the Hunter but the Smoker shot out another tongue and wrapped it around the boys wrist, feeing the pulse under the skin start to slow down rapidly. His breath was running short, and he was sure he'd die soon; the lack of oxygen, the constant toxic smoke being breathed around him from the Smoker. The tongue tightened once more and he cringed at the sound of his bones clicking under the unrelenting constriction. 

Several shotgun sounds rang out through the air and the two infected, that had been smart enough to lead the two into a trap, died. The Smoker exploded into a thick, murky, green cloud of toxic smoke and the Hunter fell limp on Nick’sbody. The two fell to the ground, only to get hauled up seconds later by two strong, gloved hands. He quickly removed the tongue from around Ellis and yanked the Hunter off of Nick. 

"I leave y'all for two minutes..." Coach mumbled, but the concern was thick in his accent, he looked the two men over and sighed at the damage. 

Nicks' torso was bloody as shit, but he was fine despite that. It seemed he'd managed to put up a good fight. Visibly, Ellis didn't look as bad, but his breathing was definitely heavier than usual, and he could see he was on the verge of passing out from the lack of oxygen. And who knew if he wouldn’t wake up?

"Sonovabitch—" He cut himself off with a harsh cough. "Thanks, Coach." 

He escorted his teammates to the safe house where he had started patching Rochelle up at when he heard the commotion going on outside, even being that far away, and decided to run to their rescue. And to think, if he'd stayed with Rochelle, they team of four would've became team of two way too quickly.

Once they were inside, he signalled Ellis lay down on a sleeping bag, demanding him to rest and tossed part of medkit to Nick as he continued to tend to Rochelles' wounds with the remaining medical items. The slashes from the Witch weren't too deep, but they bled enough to cause damage. He had managed to stop the bleeding a while ago, and he was starting up on the stitching and wrapping the bandages around. 

Nick seemed to be having some trouble, even as he had claimed he’d patched himself up easily before, wincing every minute or so when he dabbed a cut with a medical wipe. He watched as Ellis got up from his sleeping bag and went over to help Nick, a slight limp in his step as he did so. The mechanic began to patch the gamblers' wounds and they whispered things to each other, along the lines of Nick occasionally scolding the boy for not being careful, but he could tell he was worried sick, even if he didn't know it himself.

They may have been immune, but that didn't mean they were invincible. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, this was a bitch to write. Seriously. I'm tired, and this feels really rushed...Sorry if it does! I'm just itching to get it out for you guys!
> 
> Also, I finished this with 2% charge left. I AM NOT HAVING A REPEAT OF CHAPTER 4 AGAIN I SWEAR TO GOD. 
> 
> Holy shit I am so sorry. Ever since I went back to school, its been Exams Ga-fucking-lore. 
> 
> But got most of them done now, managed to pass all of them so far, so I'm back to writing! I tried to make this chapter as long as possible without dragging it on as a gift for making you guys wait so long! D: 
> 
> So if it's a good length, then whoop! (Update: This is officially the longest chapter, 2930 words :O) But if it's not as long as the others, I'm sorry but the drama in the next 2 chapters (Underground and the Port) will make up for it, trust me. *wink wink, nudge nudge*
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me even though this was on a break for a while, and keep an eye out for more chapters more frequently now! <3
> 
> Have a lovely day/night. 
> 
> P.S: Sorry if this has mistakes, I'm really tired and I'll go through and check everything over tomorrow! :)
> 
> (Did you really think I'd kill them off, THAT early ;) They haven't even been flaming homos yet D:)


	8. Underground

"Damnit, Ellis, could you be a bit gentler?" Nick scolded, wincing when Ellis started to clean one of the larger cuts on his chest from when the Hunter had caught him off guard.

"Sorry, Nick, but I can't be any 'gentler'. If we don' clean 'em properly, they're only gonna get infected." He whispered and had to stifle another harsh cough under his breath, trying not to awake his sleeping teammates laying in the corner across from them. 

Damn Smoker. 

Nick grunted under his breath and lifted his hand to Ellis' cheek, where it then slid under his chin. "Are you alright?" His eyes softened, if only for a second.

"I-I'm fine..." He stuttered, feeling his ears heat up, smiling slightly; he was happy to know the gambler cared about him more than he let on.

But the more he thought about it, the more he began to realise what he had oh-so easily overlooked. His mind drifted back to the Atrium, where their hands gripped the others' wrist for maybe a moment too long, but neither cared.

The way Nick had immediately snapped at Zoey, and telling him quote-on-quote: 'All women are emotional wrecks that will eventually kill you.', he'd overlooked it all.

The way the gambler had threw himself into harms way when they were teamed up by the Smoker and the Hunter, how he'd ran straight after him, eager to know he was okay, but only ended up getting hurt himself.

Maybe, just maybe, all of these reasons, was why Ellis did what he did next.

Nick was gazing at him worryingly, waving a hand in front of his face and wondering why the mechanic had zoned out all of a sudden.

"Overalls? Champ? Fireball?—" He finally got Ellis to snap out of his daze and look at him, cocking his head to the side slightly like a puppy, his face flushing. "You oka—"

He didn't even get to finish his damn sentence. Ellis had grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and hauled him forwards, crushing their mouths together hungrily. For such an innocent Georgian, Nick didn't think he'd be the one to swallow his pride and kiss another _guy_ , when he clearly had a crush on this sappy girl on the bridge. Or did he?

But Nick didn't give a fuck, _he'd been waiting too damn long for this._

He immediately kissed him back, applying more pressure to the others' lips than Ellis had intially intended. He deepened it more until he shoved his tongue inside the kids' mouth and let their tongues dance with one another, like the tango or some stupid cliché like that.

He'd been so engrossed in the kiss itself that he hadn't noticed that he'd leaned on Ellis a bit too much, which led to the mechanic on his back with Nick laying on top of him, never once did they break the kiss with their movements.

They broke away from the kiss once their lungs screamed for air, but they stayed pretty close. Ellis still had a tight grip on the suit lapels and the suited man had curled his arms around the youngers' waist. Nick leaned his forehead against the boys' and just stared.

Ellis, the person with never-ending stories, a thick Southern accent and who was occasionally annoying—and by occasionally, he meant all the time—had kissed _him_. Shown that he had feelings for _him_. That he only cared about _him_.

While he looked at the boy underneath him, one thought drifted through his clever mind.

_Nick 1; that ugly bitch on the bridge, 0._

"Yew should watch yer wounds." Ellis pointed out, breaking him from his thoughts, a light flush still present on the mechanics' cheeks, as if he couldn't believe he had just kissed another man; yet a cynical, cocky gambler. Nick snorted and adjusted himself so his wounds were in a more comfortable position.

"I thought you liked that bitch, Overalls? Not that I'm complaining." He smirked, placing another kiss on the kids' throat.

"Honestly, I though' I did—wait, she ain't a bitch! Anyway, I was thinkin' 'bout how yew made me feel too...An' I guess, I jus' like yew more..."

"Oh really?" He smirked, beginning to pepper Ellis' throat with kisses and nips. The boy whined underneath him and craned his neck slightly, trying to get Nick to stop.

Across the room, Rochelle turned on her side, facing away from all of them, which made the two men quieten down their voices again to make sure the others wouldn't wake up and see them like this.

Imagining Coach waking up to them pressed tightly together and on top of each other would definitely be beyond awkward. They'd probably listen to the oldest man give them a bible verse about how this was a 'sin' ;but hadn't they all sinned enough already? Rochelle would probably blush and giggle and tell them 'they made a good couple', before promptly going back to sleep.

"We should prolly sleep. Yew can get comfortable if ya want so ya wounds don'—"

"I'm think I'm just gonna sleep here. It's quite comfy." The gambler smirked, nuzzling his head in the crook of Ellis' neck and tightening his arms around the boy.

Ellis simply smiled and closed his eyes, nuzzling his cheek against the gamblers'. "If ya say so."

He had the best sleep he'd had in a long time.

* * *

 

The next morning, the gambler was the first awake, thankfully.

What he meant by 'thankfully' was that the others wouldn't see him cuddling with their youngest teammate. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Damn, he really needed a cigarette. So he could just smoke his worries away while coating his lungs in thick, black, murky tar. How lovely.

He found his thoughts wandering back to the previous night, to Ellis' prone, sleeping form only a metre away from him. How he looked at peace, like a child.

Love; Nick was sure he would never feel it again. Not after his ex-wife had divorced him, he gave her everything but of course that wasn't enough for her; it was never enough.

He would bring in thousands and thousands every day from the local casino and buy her everything she wanted. New clothes, shoes, hand bangs, earrings, whatever she wanted, she could have it.

He loved her, and she backstabbed him, cheated and argued with him on a daily basis after they'd had a few 'fun' years of marriage, they quickly got sick of each other, and thus they were divorced not a month later.

He was afraid to fall in love again, yet here he was, falling for a charming, goofy mechanic with beautiful, baby blue eyes and a heart of gold. He was afraid that the same thing would happen to him; he'd get sick of Ellis, and Ellis would get sick of him. But Ellis isn't like that, he kept telling himself. Ellis is too kind, too innocent, too happy.

Everything was blurring into Ellis, Ellis, Ellis...Just over one kiss. Was he hypnotised that easily?

But it wasn't just a kiss, it was burning, fiery passion the two shared; the need to know the other was okay, and the crave to taste each other and let the other know how much they cared, how much they needed this between them.

But was romance really a good idea in the apocalypse? So what if it wasn't, Nick was gonna take what last bits of love and hope he had left. He had faith Ellis would never backstab him, because he'd never had a feeling so deep for someone like this.

He didn't have a near enough panic attack whenever they left his sight for even a second; even in a safe house, he didn't have the constant fear that they weren't going to be okay and he for sure never had the constant feeling that he needed to protect this man.

No, it wasn't love as such, because for one Nick never admitted that to anyone, not even his crazy ex, but it was sure as hell something. Because he felt something between him and the Southerner.

And he'd be damned if anyone was going to take that away from him.

He walked over to Ellis and crouched down, before pulling him in his arms and just craddling him, cherishing him. He rested the chin on the top of the boys' cap and closed his eyes, tightening his hold before relaxing. He hoped he didn't wake the boy up.

The sudden movement had in fact awoken the boy, but he didn't seem to mind, not one bit. He leaned back slightly into Nicks' body behind him, sighing contently.

"I didn't mean to wake you. It's still pretty early if you want to sleep." Nick hadn't spoken that nicely to him before, and that made the mechanic incredibly happy inside. It was as if he'd unlocked a new side of Nick, a side just for him, just for moments like this. Suddenly, something popped into his head.

"Naw, I'm fine. But Nick, I've gotta question..." He gulped nervously.

"Well, go on."

"Does this—this make us, yanno..." He mumbled under his breath, not wanting to go too quickly with his new bond with the older man.

"Make us lovers?" He sighed; he knew this was coming. But right now, he didn't care. All he cared about was Ellis. "I want whatever you want, fireball."

"R-really...?" A huge grin spread across his face then, "Can we keep it a secret though...I don' know if I want them ta know yet."

"Sure."

A groan escaped Rochelles' mouth as she tiredly stretched, careful not to tear her stitches and rubbed her eyes, the shuffling sounds in the background helping her adjust to her surroundings and awake quicker. She slowly sat up, careful of her various fresh, bandaged cuts and bruises and leaned against the wall, sighing tiredly at the two boys who were already awake.

"Ugh, my head hurts like hell. What the hell happened?" She asked, looking down at the bandages covering her torso.

"We almost got mauled to death, of course, or did you think we just _miraculously_ got injured?" The gambler rolled his eyes, which in return only made Rochelle scowl. Yep, Nick was back to being Nick.

"Would've thought that beating would've knocked some of that 'I'm an asshole' attitude out of you, Nick." She replied, smirking.

"Oh, how you wound me, Ro." The suited man then turned to the table where their weapons lay and started counting his M16 clips and cleaning said rifle.

"How are you doing, sweetie?" She asked Ellis, smiling.

"Well I'm jus' mighty fine, Ro!" He gave her a wide grin, but she cringed at how hoarse and strained the mechanics' voice was. It definitely sounded like it pained him to talk.

"Are you sure? Your voice sounds...different." She shuffled a bit closer to him so she could hear him clearer.

"Well hell, looks like tha' Smoker really did a number on me, huh?" He rubbed the back of his neck, wincing when he pressed too hard on one of the bruises.

"Smoker?"

"Yeah. When yew got attacked by tha' crazy zombie thing, Coach carried yew to the safe house, while me an' Nick had ta kill the horde. Then, I got dragged into a bush an' Nick came to help me, but there was a Hunter there too, so we both got banged up purdy bad."

Rochelle was dumbfounded. Coach had practically left them?! Well, what mattered now was that they were both safe. She worried her lip and her eyes narrowed slightly. She must've looked pretty pissed because Ellis put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don'cha worry none, though. Coach came an' helped us before shit hit the fan." He gave her a warm smile before getting up from beside her and picking up his sniper and looking through the scope and through the bars of the safe room door. Outside there was a light drizzle of rain and a few zombies, which the mechanic took the courtesy of getting rid of with a bullet in the skull.

All of the gunshots and nagging from Rochelle and Nick arose the former football coach from his rest. Unlike Rochelle, his awakening wasn't quiet or a little stretch. Coach awaking was like a bear awaking; he would sprawl out across the floor in a stretch then let out an enormous yawn and roll over onto his back and slowly get up. All the while occasionally snoring.

"Can't y'all let a man get 'is beauty rest?" Coach complained, yawning and getting up.

"Oh good, you're awake. We can get moving quickly now." Rochelle smiled.

"I could say the same thing, baby girl. How are you and the young'uns holdin' up?" He asked concerned.

"We're all fine. Nick is still a sarcastic asshole—" Said sarcastic asshole rolled his eyes at that, "—Ellis is fine and I'm feeling better, at least." She explained.

"Alright. We should get movin', ya hear? We needa get to that bridge where the folks are and maybe we can offer them to join us..." He scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"What?" Nick jumped in, "There's no way in hell that a bitch and a greaseball biker are tagging along with us to New Orleans." He grumbled.

"Nicholas, the more of us there are, the safer we are. We don't care whether you like them or not, we care about surviving. That's what we're all trying to do." Rochelle scolded, walking over to the table and picking up her AK-47 before passing Coach his shotgun. Nick went to protest again but Coach beat him to it.

"She's right, Nick. If we wanna live, we've gotta work together. When we're all outta this, you don't have to see that biker ever again. Plus, we don't even know if they'll join with us after all." Coach sided with Rochelle, as fucking usual.

"Fine, whatever. But if they do join us, if that greaseball has a bullet in the back of his brain, it isn't my fault." With that, he joined Ellis by the door.

"I ever tell yew 'bout the time Keith got married?—" Ellis spoke up, the first time in a while, —"'Course not, tha's a trick question, he never got married. Ya know yew hear 'bout them 'Runaway brides' right? Well, Keith was a runaway groom, and on his wedding day—"

"Ellis, sweetie, I normally like your stories, I do, but not now, okay?" She gently shushed him, checking her weapons' ammo.

"Okay."

"Alright, kids. We've got no kits left since we used the last on Nick and Ro, so try not to get banged up too much, ya hear?" They all nodded, and Ellis removed the metal bar from the door and pushed it open, the raindrops tapping against the metal.

Considering Ellis had sniped most of the infected earlier, the street they were currently advancing towards was clear of any infected for now. As they reached the street, there were various different locked down stores along either sides that they would've scavenged for supplies, but due to the circumstances they couldn't.

They continued down the street, the rain making their clothes wet and sticky but they pushed through until they saw an open store, with a banner spelling 'Tattoes' vertically downwards. They all sprinted inside, eager to get out of the horrendous weather that they were forced to fight in.

"Tattoos!" Ellis exclaimed enthusiastically, gazing upon the various different designs along the walls. "I love tattoos, I only 'ave one, but I was gonna get my truck tattooed on my other arm, damn zombies." He pouted.

"Hey, I got most of these!" Coach grinned, guffawing softly.

"Where...?" Rochelle whispered, more to herself than anyone else, but Coach heard her and turned to her, eyebrows raised and a smirk plastered to his face.

"Hey, Coach keeps his secrets." He laughed when Rochelle gagged in disgust, muttering to herself 'Please be the ankle, please be the ankle!'

After finding no supplies, just a scary secret about Coach, in the Tattoo parlour, they left shortly after and continued down the street until they saw a bar with smashed windows which they all managed to climb through.

Inside, they found pool tables and empty beer bottles as well as tables and chairs, but the one thing that stood out the most was the jukebox.

The mechanic rushed to it, figuring out that it worked and itching to play a song. As he reached to press the play button on a Midnight Riders song, Nick promptly stopped him.

"Don't, Overalls, it'll attract nearly every infected in this area." Ellis pouted at him, eyes pleading. "Oh, don't give me that look."

His lower lip stuck out further.

"Okay, look, after all of this shit cleans up, I'll get you tickets to see your favourite band, deal?" Nick reasoned, watching the boys' face light up like a child on Christmas and shoot him a smile.

"I'm holdin' yew to that." He walked away from the jukebox and scanned the bar.

"I know." _Christ, what did he just get himself in to._

After finding a molotov in the back of the bar that was handed to Nick, they carried on from the bar and into a construction site. There were a few infected down there eithed dead or stuck in some mud. It was covered in murky rain water and dirt, as well as a tractor being planted straight in front of their path. How original.

They managed to navigate around the tractor without alerting many of the infected but any that did notice them were swiftly ended. There was a slight gurgle sound and a hysterical laugh in the distance as well as a splintering, high pitched hacking noise.

"I hear a Boomer an' a Jockey." Ellis piped up, preparing his sniper.

"Spitter too." Rochelle muttered, cocking her AK-47.

They sloshed through the rest of the construction site before they came to another apartment building and entered it theough the back door. It led them into a bar where various different writings were scribbled on the wall.

They continued past and up a flight of stairs, and checked a room with a suitcase full of pistols and money where Coach started singing a lyric and when Nick thought nobody was looking, snatched the pistols and the money.

Money talks even in an apocalypse, kids.

After that they continued up another flight of stairs which led them to a metal scaffolding and a little plank that was there transport from the scaffolding to the window ledge of another building.

"Looks real safe." The gambler snorted sarcastically.

"Jus' don' look down..." Ellis warned as he slowly shuffled along the plank first. He made it across safely, and Nick went next, making it across too.

When Coach went to walk across, a fiery, green ball of spit was shot up and exploded on the plank. It coated the wooden plank in thick, sizzling, green acid and made Coach sprint across it frantically as it burned the soles of his feet and burnt the plank. It went crashing down to the ground below, leaving Rochelle on the other side.

She looked down at the plank before rapidly looking back up, feeling panic overwhelm her. How would she get across to her teammates?!

"You gotta jump, baby girl." Coach ushered her as he stood on the window ledge, arms outstretched and ready to catch the girl. "I'll catch ya, you'll be fine!"

"I-I won't make it!" She stuttered, breathing heavily and clutching her gun till her knuckles went white.

"It's either this or the zombies, sweetheart. Take your pick." The gambler crossed his arms over his chest. Rochelle swallowed down her endless fear and launched herself at Coach, her arms flailing about quickly and she ended up knocking Coach off his balance as he caught her, making them both stumble to the ground.

She got up and hugged Coach as tightly as she could.

"See, told ya you'd be fine!" He laughed heartily, giving her a pat on the back.

"Alright ladies. Let's get moving." Nick led the way out of the building they'd just entered.

They went down a flight of stairs before it led them back to another street. They shot the infected that roamed it before seeing a bright sign ahead of them.

'Jazzclub: Historic under the river tour'

"The tours in the club, let's go,"

They all headed inside, and it was deserted, of course. The club itself was just a shitty bar and a tiny stage where people would presumably perform. They looked around and spotted a white, small bottle sitting on the bar table. Coach walked over and picked it up, reading the label.

"'Medication, only use when in pain'" Coach read, "This shit'll help!" He pocketed the pills before they carried on through the club which led to the tour.

It was a fucking dump.

"Five God-damn dollars for an under the river tour? Well played Rayford, well played." Nick muttered to himself as he looked around.

Scaffolding and wooden planks were half hanging off of the walls and floors. Wait, scratch that, there wasn't even a floor, unless you count dirt and gravel 'floor'. There were broken windows which were boarded up with wooden planks and the walls had cracks and badly peeled plaster as well.

Suddenly, a Boomer jumped out in front of them and vomited all over them.

"Oh, God damnit!" Nick groaned, shooting the Boomer, making more vomit fly over all of them. The horde screeched and snarled as the infected charged towards them. They instantaneously started firing, all of the infected in the tour had been alerted to them; this was gonna be one hell of a fight.

There was that hysterical laughter again and then—

"Ellis?! Ellis is that you? What the hell?!" Ellis' eyebrows raised and he looked towards Coach expectantly. Coach yelped, the Jockey on his back steering him away from the horde and his teammates. As the others were still fighting the horde, they didn't notice where Coach went, but they definitely heard him.

Nick pulled out his molotov and beckoned his teammates to back up before he threw the flaming bottle into the general direction the horde was coming, making them run into the fire.

They took off for Coach after seeing his silhouette on one of the walls and ran to where his yells were still coming from. As they rounded the corner, they saw the Jockey repeatedly smacking Coachs' head into the wall all the while scratching his neck and face badly. They took aim and fired into the Jockeys' back, making it slump over Coachs' shoulders when it died. He grimaced and threw the dead infected off of his back.

"Thanks, y'all." He nodded, straightening up and walking to where he'd dropped his shotgun before wiping a bleedng cut on his face with his gloved hand.

They continued on through the tour building and searching the area for any supplies they could use. They didn't find anything except for some ammo which was useful anyhow.

They came to a metal staircase which led them down to the supposed 'Under the river tour'. As they walked down, Nick couldn't help but voice his thoughts.

"How much do you wanna bet this is gonna be filthy?" He frowned, looking down towards the 'river' below them. Rochelle smirked from in front of him.

"Oh, you are going to love the under the river tour..." She gloated,

"I am not going to enjoy this under the river tour."

They came to a stop suddenly, the metal staircase had been broken and it had became remains in the water below. No, wait, not water, sewage.

Nick felt like vomiting right there, right now; and he almost did as well.

Ellis jumped in first, not really caring if this was sewage or water; he wanted his car back and if he had to get through here to get it, then so be it. Rochelle went next, muttering something along the lines of 'Ah, to hell with it.' as she jumped in. Coach waited up top with Nick who was still refusing to jump down.

"Aw c'mon, Nick, i's fine, really!" Ellis hollered up to him, hoping to coax him into jumping down. It nearly worked, but he shook his head, scowling once more.

Coach narrowed his eyes at the man, then a loud growl sounded above them. There was a Charger on the stairs waiting for them, coming after them quickly.  
"Nick, get your OCD, smelly-ass movin'!" Coach bellowed, shoving the suited man into the river below. Once he saw Nick land, he jumped down himself before the Charger could catch up to him.

"God damnit!" Luckily, Nick had manager to keep his top half of his body out of the water when he landed but that didn't mean he didn't drop his weapons. He grimaced as he stuck his hand back under and sloshed around looking for his rifle. In the background, he could hear his teammates snickering.

"This is some gross shit." He stated, managing to find his M16 drenched in sewage. After Nicks' tantrum, they began walking towards a ladder not too far from them which led to a pathway above, which Nick was incredibly grateful for.

When they reached the ladder, they climbed up it and walked across the walkways. They found a mekit which they gave to Coach for the wounds from the Jockey so he could patch them up later.

They reached a gate with a button, which they would have to press to get across the river. And of course, this was going to _have_ to alert even more infected to them. This fucking apocalypse.

"Alright, I'm gonna start it." Rochelle stated, and before she could protest, she slammed her hand down on the button, making an alarm sound above them and screeches of infected surrounded them. They rapidly jumped down into the river again and sprinted towards another ladder, but it wasn't going to be _that_  easy.

The horde began to close in on them, so they were pretty much all fighting back to back and not having much breathing room. They kept firing and throwing shoves and punches when a few infected strayed too close when they had to reload. 

They pulled through and the horde stopped charging for a while and they took this time to climb the next ladder and run along the metal pathway to another gate, but this time, there was a bridge for them to run across. They waited by the gate for a moment, debating whether another alarm would sound, but more screeches quickly ended that debate. 

After Coach had pressed the button, they dashed across, shooting at a few infected below them. The bridge wasn't as safe as they thought though, it had broken near the end which led them to a tunnel below. They jumped down into the sewage again, Nick lagging a bit behind because of him voicing his frustations.

"GREAT, BACK IN THE SHIT WATER!" He yelled, taking his anger out on the infected by blasting a bullet in their brains. 

"Alright people, let's just get through this shit! We're almost there!" Coach hollered to them, running through the tunnel and shooting any infected in front of them.  

From behind the walls of the tunnel, a Charger ran out and appeared in front of them. It then charged at them at full speed. Coach, having seen it first, managed to move out of the way; but his other three teammates who were covering behind, had no idea what just hit them. 

Considering Ellis was behind Coach, it rammed into him and carried him away as well as hitting Rochelle and Nick in the process. He crashed into a wall and felt himself being lifted up before smashed into the concrete ground. 

"SHOOT THE CHARGER!" He groaned, as he felt himself being crushed into the ground once again. His teammates were there in seconds, shooting the Charger and letting Nick help Ellis to his feet as Coach and Rochelle kept the horde off of them.

"You okay?" He asked the mechanic, their hands holding each others a bit longer. 

"Yeah, sucker jus' caught me by surprise, is all." His back would definitely be bruised, but other than that, he would be fine. He picked up his sniper again and they all continued down the remainder of the tunnel, thankful that the horde had stopped bothering them for a while. 

At the end of the tunnel, they climbed up another ladder and continued up some stairs which fortunately led to a safe room; never a safe house.

They'd take what they were offered though, darting in and barricading the metal door before slumping to the ground in exhaustion. Nick was engrossed in trying to clean his suit while Coach places a few bandages around his cuts. 

Ellis and Rochelle just slept. For tomorrow, they'd need all the energy they could get. 

And in the middle of the night when the others were asleep, Ellis wasn't surprised to feel two strong arms wrap around his waist and hold on to him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, this is so long my GOD. 4834 words; well, that's long in my books. 
> 
> AND YES. THE OTP HAS BEEN ENGAGED. Well, not literally engaged. Psh, I wish. xC  
> Just cuddling and kissing, because I'm a sappy fangirl. 
> 
> This was supposed to be out yesterday, but i was writing it for 2 and a half hours and I STILL hadn't finished it. So, I was tired, so I went to sleep and saved it. 
> 
> Now it's morning, and IT STILL TOOK ME ANOTHER HOUR TO FINISH IT. The things I do for Nellis, believe me. ;-; *shakes fist*
> 
> Anywhoooo, hope you enjoyed and if I'm feeling ambitious, I MIGHT post port tonight, but if I'm incredibly tired it'll probably be out Monday/Tuesday. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and have a great day! <3 ;D


	9. Port

It was still early, 2:33am on Rochelles' watch when she was awoken to the throes of a nightmare. 

Glancing around, what she saw was...Surprising, to say the least. And she didn't mean you average 'surprise' when someone jumps out of a wardrobe and scares you, she means that this was completely out of the ordinary.

But  _God-damn,_ she'd seen this coming a mile away. 

She'd woken up to the gambler and the mechanic pressed tightly together, limbs entwined; and dare she say it, _cuddling_  with one another. 

And it took all of her strength to not squee out loud at the utter cuteness of it. She just settled with smiling and blushing like a teenage girl with a crush.

Now, when she first met Nick; despite the hickey and the lipstick on his collar, she was certain he wasn't straight, no matter how much of a ladies' man he looked. The occasional 'Sweetheart,' or 'Honey,' with the usual scowl hinted at this, telling her that he wasn't treating potentially the last woman on earth as any prize or thinking of getting a lay out of her any time soon.

Ellis...Well, Ellis was definitely harder to figure out. At first, she'd thought he was straight, and her suspicions were confirmed when he started crushing on Zoey. But she began to realise how little he talked about her, or even acknowledged her now; and when she saw the two of them, it finally clicked together.

She didn't crush on Zoey anymore because he was crushing on _Nick._

And strangely, Rochelle thought Nick and Ellis would make a better couple then Zoey and Ellis would. 

It was like the two balanced the other out; like they needed each other. Nick made sure Ellis stayed focussed and Ellis gave Nick hope.

She'd also noticed how Nick would heal Ellis before himself and vice-versa, how the two would always stay near each other during a horde and she'd sneakily stole a glance at how long their hands held each others' when Nick was helping Ellis up the other day. 

To her, it was all adorable. Even though romance would probably be a big distraction in an apocalypse, she couldn't bring herself to break the two apart. 

Rolling back onto her side again, she let her eyelids flutter shut and curled under the blanket they'd found in the corner of the safe room before falling back to sleep.

* * *

 

As she was the first to wake up in the middle of the night, Rochelle was the first to awake again the next day. And, being the nice girl she was, she decided to wake Nick up so the boys could avoid quite an awkward conversation with Coach.

And pehaps a lecture from the older man about how, in the bible, that what the two were doing was a sin and what the fuck ever.

"Jesus, Rochelle—" It was then that he realised how close he was to his Southerner. 

Shit, they'd been caught.

"It's not what it looks like," He quickly defended. "I must've just—"

"Calm down, Nicholas," She chuckled, before smiling warmly at him. "I honestly think it's cute."

"Ro, please, never say that again." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It is! And plus, do you think I wouldn't have noticed how you two have been acting towards each other lately? You don't insult him anymore, you're always by his side and now it all makes sense. It's just so adorable!" She chided. 

"Ro! Okay, fine. We're in a...relationship, or whatever." It pained him to say that. Not because he was ashamed of it of course, but because all of his relationships just ended him with a broken heart and he'd build walls to keep people out so he wouldn't get hurt again. 

"Oh and another thing..." She started and he raised a brow. "If you hurt that boy, I will shoot you with your own gun." She smiled before walking over and sitting by Coach.

"Huh, I was expecting a slap, but I saw that coming too." She laughed.

"Trust me, if I wanted to slap you, I would've already." Her smile softened as her eyes flickered over the two sleeping forms close by. "Think we should wake them up?" 

"May as well. We should get going before the greaseballs' team thinks we've died." 

"He's not a greaseball, Nick. I think he's quite nice." She reasoned, shaking Coach lightly.

"Oh? What's the matter sweetie, playing hard to get?" He smirked cockily at her as he cleaned his M16. She gasped and turned around fully to face him.

" _What?!_ "

"C'mon, I saw the way you were looking at him."

"I don't believe this." She mumbled, turning away once again.

"Look, there are probably ten guys left on the planet Rochelle, and you're not getting any younger, sweetie." He set his M16 down once again and took to idly securing his cufflinks.

"Yeah, because you've already got the youngest one covered, right?" She smirked. 

"Touché." 

The sound of another person awaking interrupted their conversation and the comeback that was about to spill from the gamblers' lips. 

Ellis stirred and his eyes drifted open as he sat up from the concrete floor and leant against the wall. He flashed a tired smile towards his two teammates.

"Mornin'," He plopped his cap back on his head.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty." The gambler teased; the boy just scoffed but his smile didn't falter.

"We should wake up Coach and get going quickly." Rochelle spoke before she began to shake Coach again, more thoroughly this time. But the man just wouldn't wake up, and the reporter was getting impatient.

"God damnit Coach, c'mon!" The only response she got was a loud bear-like growl before the sleeping man rolled over, his back facing her. 

"I've got an idea," Ellis cleared his throat, "I ever tell ya 'bout the time Keith an' I made fireworks? Now I didn't know shit 'bout chemistry but Keith figures gasoline burns don' it? Third degree burns over ninety percent of his body—"

"Young'un, can't ya see I'm tryna sleep 'ere?" Coach sleep-garbled. 

"Well, we were tryna wake yew after all, Coach." The mechanic replied, grinning.

 "We got any breakfast?" Coach prayed, eyes pleading. Rochelle frowned and shook her head.

"We haven't had any food for days now—"

"At this rate, it won't be zombies that kill us, sweetheart." Nick jumped in which only made Rochelles' frown deepen.

"We'll find some, but we should get going." She picked up her AK-47 and stood by the door, shooting a few infected in the path. The others followed suit, picking up their specified weapons and waiting for her to unlock the door. She did so, removing the bar before yanking it open. 

The rain was still there, but it wasn't as heavy as before. It was a light, cooling storm which was welcome because of the heat that the south normally endured. 

They walked up steps on the pathway where they saw the two former survivors and another that they'd never seen before perched on the bridge railing.

"Hey! You made it!" The new survivor greeted cheerfully.

"Hell yeah we did." Coach grinned before scanning the people in front of him. "You folks got names?" 

"I'm Louis, and this is Francis and Zoey. Who are you guys?"

"Friends call me Coach, that's Ro, Ellis and Nick—"

"As much as I hate to break up the mothers' meeting, but are you gonna lower the bridge now or what?" The gambler demanded, his M16 resting against his shoulder. 

"If you fill up the generator, you'll be able to lower the bridge; we can cover you in the meantime, Colonel Sanders." Zoey smirked before batting her eyelashes and offering a soft smile at Ellis, who immediately looked away and made a coughing sound in his throat. Her smile didn't falter.

Nick spotted this; and fuck would it feel good to shoot her in between the eyes right now. 

_Don't hit on my man, bitch._

He came spiralling back into reality by Francis' husky tone as he flirted with Rochelle a few metres away. She was blushing intensely and giggling as the man blew a kiss to her. When Francis turned to Nick, the gambler flipped him off; only to recieve that ever so expectant slap from Rochelle.

He knew it was coming eventually.

After their little meet and greet session, the four piled into an elevator not too far away which would lower them down to generator. It was a port; and a relatively big one at that. The likeability of the four finding gas in an area like this was slim. 

If they can do it in a mall, they can do it in a port. 

They pressed the elevator button and it slowly descended down to the floor below. The cogs of the elevator screeched as they moved, attracting the nearby horde to swarm them as soon as the elevator hit the floor. 

They managed to shoot them down before they were completely surrounded; scrambling out of the elevator and running for the nearest building to look for any gas. 

On the balcony of a small bar, the other two survivors stood, while on the bridge, Louis handled a machine gun turret; all of them ready to aid the survivors when they needed it. 

Below, the four had managed to already find two gas cans in the bar; Nick and Coach had ran out and poured them into the generator. 

Afterwards they decided to split up to find more gascans quicker. Coach insisted he search the port with Nick (even though the gambler wanted to make sure the mechanic wouldn't get into any trouble while he was searching) and Ellis would stay with Rochelle. 

The two men took off towards the further side of the port, picking up any gas cans they saw on the way and chucking them towards the generator. As Coach ran to grab a can near a building, a Boomer jumped from the roof and in front of him; exploding and sending vomit all over Coach. He dropped the gascan as he staggered backwards. 

As Coach was biled, the Spitter that had been watching them on another roof took it's chance to spit acid at the man as he was surrounded by the horde. The acid burnt through the soles of his shoes and clothes as Nick shot at the infected in front of him so he could run out the burning goo.

"Thanks, man," Coach nodded towards the gambler. 

"Whatever." 

Once the horde was clear from around the two, they picked up the remainding gas cans near them and hauled ass back to the generator.

* * *

 

"A beautiful name for a beautiful lady..." Francis swooned as he gazed down at Rochelle from the balcony. She smiled back up at him and the two began having a flirtatious conversation.

Ellis just stood on the sidelines awkwardly the whole time. 

After around five minutes of just watching the pair, the boy decided to take it upon himself to look for some cans and leave the two lovebirds to do their own thing. As he started to walk away, a person yelled out his name.

"Hey, Ellis! Do you need some help?" Zoey offered, looking down at him as she reloaded her Hunting rifle and shot an infected behind the mechanic.

"Well sure, if it's fine with yew." She smiled as she made her way down from the balcony bar and walked out next to him. He couldn't help but be polite and smile back.

Louis saw the exchange between the two and scowled. He instinctively tightened his grip on the turret and narrowed his eyes at Ellis. 

"I saw some gas 'round here before, let's check if it's still there." She spoke, leading Ellis to a corner of the port where upon a scaffolding stood two cans. They both picked one up each and Ellis spotted something in the corner of his eye. A glistening blade.

An axe. 

He dropped his can momentarily and ran to pick up said weapon, examining it and turning it over in his hands. 

"Oh hell yes." He chucked the axe on his back before grabbing the gascan and him and Zoey ran back to the generator. Near the generator, Coach and Nick were already pouring in gas and Rochelle had found one can, having stopped talking to Francis. 

As the two neared the others, there was a roar of a Charger behind them; behind Ellis even. 

"Hey Kid, look out!" Francis warned and Ellis turned around as the Charger ran at him full speed. He could hear the others calling out his name, telling him to move out the way.

He didn't move, though. He pulled his axe off of his back and as the Charger was about to ram into him, he swung straight across, decapitating the Charger and making its corpse whizz past him. The others stared wide eyed as Ellis whooped.

"God damn, kid, nice." The biker gave him a bearded grin which he returned. 

Zoey returned back to the balcony as the four checked the generator. They needed two more cans. 

"'Ey! I see two cans on the railing up 'ere!" Ellis pointed out.

"See if you can get 'em, young'un. Toss 'em down when ya reach 'em. Nick, go with the boy." The two nodded and took off towards the direction of the cans. 

Once away from the others and starting up a staircase, the two began to talk.

"That was some risky shit you pulled back there." Nick muttered, following after the mechanic.

"I know right? Wasn't it awesome? I was like some sort of—"

"Don't ever do it again." The gambler scolded. 

"Was still pretty cool though." Ellis mumbled as he picked up a gas can and Nick did the same. As the two were running back to the generator, the ground began to shake beneath them, more so than last time they'd encountered this infected. Behind them, a Tank climbed up over the wall and pounded its fists on its chest.

"TANK!" They yelled in unison, immediately attracting the attention of their teammates. They dropped the cans and pulled ou their weapons before open firing. The Tank jumped off the wall and began charging towards them rapidly. As the Tank got closer, they began to back away until they were both slammed in the back by another infected. 

They were both seperated from each other as they landed on the floor. Ellis risked a look behind him and his eyes widened.

_Another Tank._

"FUCK!" Nick cursed, running towards Ellis hauling him off of the ground by his arm. They picked up the cans and ran, the Tanks hot on their heels. 

"LEAD THE TANKS BACK TO THE BRIDGE! LET US COVER YOU!" Zoey yelled, Coach and Rochelle running around to help their teammates.

The two ran around a corner which led them to the hill where they could see the generator and the other survivors.

"LOUIS GET READY, TANKS COMIN'!" Ellis warned, running towards them. The other survivors shot at the Tanks as they got closer, making the two vast infected stumble back from the heavy gunfire.

"I am gonna rip those puppies up!" Louis taunted before firing his turret into the Tanks. Blood sprayed everywhere and one Tank picked up a rock and hauled it at Rochelle, hitting her in the kneecaps. It sent her sprawling to the ground, the Tank towering above her, raising its fists to crush her. The survivors shot, hoping to kill the Tank in time.

"HELL NO!" Francis shouted, jumping over the balcony railing, managing to not break his ankles, and pumping led from his shotgun into the Tanks back, making it fall over dead. 

Rochelle smirked at him, although she couldn’t feel her knees. 

"Well, looks like I have a knight in shining armour." She joked as the biker hauled her to her feet. She stumbled as she walked and eventually had to lean on the biker as they made their way back to their teammates, where they watched the Tank fall before Nick, Ellis and Coach. 

Ellis and Nick poured the remaining gas into the generator and pressed the button to lower the bridge. 

Once the metal bridge was lowered, Coach looked up at the survivors. 

"Hey, do y'all wanna come with us? We've got room!" The other three thought for a while, before they nodded and smiled before lowering themselves down to the bridge, where they all ran to the stock car as they heard another horde. 

Somehow, they all miraculously managed to fit into the Jimmy Gibbs, with the sole exception that certain individuals had to sit on another’s lap, and Coach drove full speed along the remainder of the bridge and up the hill leading to a road. The infected blood splattered all across the windscreen. 

_What a fun road trip this will be._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woop! So glad I got the Passing done! Now I can create my own scenes and story lines and different areas they can visit, and who they'll encounter.
> 
> Fuck, I have so many ideas that I just wanna rush and write them all.
> 
> But one, that'll ruin the story because it'll be so rushed, and two, I'm too lazy to do that. So yep, chapters won't be coming out any quicker unless I have another holiday off school or something. 
> 
> On that note, chapter 10 won't be out till Saturday/Sunday because I'll have to put more thought into the chapters about where they're gonna head next and what's going to happen considering I don't have an easy guideline to follow.
> 
> So, the next chapters will be longer than the others undoubtedly. 
> 
> But but but, you can make requests on what you want to happen in the story if you would like. They may not essentially be included in the very next chapter, but it just gives me some more ideas and makes the story more interesting for you guys. 
> 
> If you give me an idea and I use it, I will credit you for it too. :) 
> 
> Just thought I'd put this out there.
> 
> Onto the real notes of this chapter!
> 
> So yeah, Rochelle is a total Nellis fangirl. ;D Like we all are, of course. There's some Rochelle/Francis in this chapter and Louis is slightly jealous.
> 
> Even though Louis was annoyed with Ellis this chapter over his crush on Zoey; he doesn't realise he's with Nick. So that's why I included that, but trust me, the two are so simliar so I think they'll be good friends. 
> 
> Except I'm definitely making it so Zoey has an interest in Ellis, then Nick getting all pissed and kicking her ass. <3
> 
> Then Louis is gonna be pissed.
> 
> ANGSTTTT.
> 
> Maybe. XD
> 
> Damn I'm dragging this on. I'm rambling way too much, I love talking. Someone should just stitch my mouth up and tie my typing fingers together. I'M STILL RAMBLING.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. <3


	10. Teamed up

The now team of seven had been driving for a good hour or so, the port no where near in sight and they had encountered a few infected along the roads, but they rapidly became roadkill. For the most part, Ellis had just rambled on about Keith while they all got to know each other. But he had fallen asleep somewhere along the journey afterwards.

They'd found out Louis was an IT technician, Zoey was a college student who spent most of her time watching zombie movies—little did she know she was actually studying the _right_ movies— and that Francis was a biker who had been to prison twice. 

"So, why were y'all on the bridge instead of at an Evac?" Coach questioned, glancing at the others in the back seat. Rochelle had been talking to Francis for a while, but he turned to eye Coach in the rearview mirror. 

"Evac? Hell no, we've had enough of the military." The biker grumbled, Louis nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we were at one before. Since we're immune, we were dragged into the military confinement and put through all sorts of sick tests. When we found out what they were actually doing to us, we left as soon as we could. Not like they just let us go, though; we had to wait till the military compound got overrun to actually escape." Louis explained. 

"You guys are immune too, right?" Zoey jumped in, scanning them all wearily. 

"Yeah. So are you saying we shouldn't head to an evac? Are CEDA _this_ bad?" Rochelle asked.

"Well originally it was Bills'—" Zoey stopped herself and looked at the ground, ashamed with who's name she had just blurted out. She felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes.

"Huh? Who's Bill?" 

"Bill was an asshole for sure. But that old man sacrificed himself for us, we wouldn't be here without him. Gonna miss that old son of a bitch." Francis sighed, recieving a soft smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder from Ro. 

"Sorry for your loss, all shit aside, I'm sorry to hear it." The gambler spoke up for what seemed like an eternity. The others' were surprised by his sudden kindness, but they smiled nonetheless. 

"You're beginning to like us, eh Nick?" Ro joked, smirking.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious, Ro." 

"Well, I know _one_ person you _definitely_ like—"

"Don't push your luck." He muttered. 

Loudly, the tires screeched as they scruffed against the road from the sudden brake Coach had caused. He looked down at the fuel metre and sighed heavily. They were out of gas, but they'd stopped in a neighbourhood; they could leave the car and carry on just fine. 

They all looked to Coach expectantly.

"Y'all, we're outta gas. Since we're near tons of houses, I believe we can probably keep goin' on foot to find a safe house; snd even if we don', we can hunker down in a house 'ere if we need to. Sound good?" They all agreed and got out the car.

Nick shook Ellis gently and nudged him with his shoulder. The boy groaned and sat up on the gamblers' legs. 

"Hey El, wake up. We've gotta move." 

"Aw shit, did I fall asleep on ya? I didn't mean ta make you uncomfortable or nothin'." The boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Don't worry about it. I didn't complain did I?" He smirked before they both got out the car. 

The seven then grabbed their weapons and they each had a health kit thanks to the supplies from Louis' group, they split up into groups before going to check certain houses. The groups were: Francis and Rochelle, Coach and Louis and Nick, Ellis and Zoey. 

Louis was pissed. Not because he hated Coach or anything, but because Zoey went with the mechanic rather than him! He'd only known him a days at that! And he could already tell she was crushing on him! Why couldn't Zoey pay attention to him for once?!

Nick was also immediately pissed. He knew exactly what Zoeys' intent was and he was silently contemplating whether to shoot Zoey in the kneecaps and leave her for a Tank or something. 

But instead of doing just that, the three walked into a house and looked around. Nick decided to search upstairs while Zoey and Ellis searched downstairs. There was also a basement as well, but there's no way they'd go down there; they'd all seen their fair share of horror movies, and right now, they were living one. 

While upstairs, the gambler had found a molotov and some shotgun ammo that he could probably give to Coach. He'd found an infected man as well which he ended with a bullet through the head. After checking the other rooms and only finding the occasional infected, he went back downstairs to find Ellis and Zoey striking up a conversation. 

They were talking about complete nonsense that Nick had only partly listened to when he came down; something about a horror movie Zoey watched that the mechanic had as well or some stupid shit as well. Their was a glint in Zoeys' eyes, a soft smile across her face as she watched Ellis' full attention on her for once, and actually speaking to her. His adorable accent no doubt pleasing Zoey greatly. 

Nick looked at the display and scoffed, trying to hide his jealousy with quick roll of his emerald eyes. Not wanting the two to get too carried away in their conversation, or he just wanted to stop them before Zoey made a move, he spoke up.

"Well, find anything?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. Zoey seemed to flinch under his pensive stare.

"Yeah, I found some pills and a few cans of food." The girl responded. Nick turned to Ellis.

"I found another medkit and some ammo. It'll prolly be useful fer yer gun actually, Nick." The boy handed over the M16 bullets he'd found. The gambler thanked the boy. 

After doing another thorough double check of the house, they left to find their teammates standing near the stock car waiting for them. They were holding a few seperate supplies different to theirs, but they seemed useful nonetheless.

"What took y'all so long?" Coach questioned.

"The house was packed with supplies. We had to take as much as we could for the long run." Zoey answered, placing the pills she'd found in her kit. 

"We should get going before it gets dark. Moving at night is a death wish." Louis pointed towards a direction where they started walking. 

"I hate death wishes." Francis stated making Rochelle giggle from next to him.

"Is there anything you _don't_ hate, Francis?" Zoey rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I don't hate Ro." He smirked. The reporter blushed.

"How charming. Rochelle, I actually feel sorry for you." 

As Rochelle went to answer, she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings; thus she walked straight into an alarm car and nearly fell over the hood of it, making the blaring alarm sound and an oncoming screech of a horde was heard. 

"God damnit!" Nick cursed. 

"Get ready, y'all, 'ere they come!" Ellis began firing at the direction the horde was sprinting at them from. They bullets rained down upon the undead creatures, every zombie in the neighbourhood area being alerted to their location. Their was a cackling giggle as well as an ear-piercing shriek and a murky cough in the background. 

The Jockey snuck up on Louis and threw itself onto his back like a maniac. 

"AGH! GET THIS THING OFFA ME!" Louis yelled, the Jockey on his back steering him away from his teammates. As Coach went to help him, the Hunter pounced him. It then occured to them that they were being led into a trap by the three infected; the next person to run and help would undoubtedly get targeted by the Smoker.

Rochelle risked it; running forwards only for the grotesque tongue to wrap around her waist and pull her away from her teammates. She thrashed about trying to get free but she couldn't. 

Considering Ellis had a sniper and had seen the Smoker, he managed to shoot the tongue before head shooting the infected before it could do any real damage to Rochelle. He cleared a path of infected to get to her and help her. 

Nick had managed to shoot the Jockey through the horde that now surrounded Louis and Zoey and Francis managed to get the Hunter off of Coach; but the damage to the other two survivors has already been done. 

Coachs' chest was ripped to shit, like ribbons almost. Louis' face and neck was scratched and torn, and they'd have to get to a safe place to tend to both their wounds properly. Leaving Coachs' too long would result with the bigger man bleeding out but Louis could probably last a lot longer; and his wounds wouldn't kill him. Rochelle was slightly bruised but she would be alright. 

Since the horde had died down for a while, they took the quiet period of time to haul ass to try and get away before more infected came.

While they were running, Coachs' bleeding had caused him to collapse and left Francis, Nick and Ellis to drag and pull the man across the paths, determined to get him somewhere safe. 

They saw a huge house with vast stone walls and barricaded, boarded up windows standing tall on a gradually ascending hill. It looked like a good place to stay for perhaps a good period of time while their teammates healed fully so they ran towards it eagerly. More screams only made them run faster. 

By the time they got there, they were all panting and out of breath. Gasping and dragging their feet along, they reached the front door, only for it to be yanked open and five survivors stood in their way of safety for the night.

"Drop your weapons and have your arms where we can see them and we won't shoot." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOP CLIFFHANGERS. 
> 
> I'm not sorry. You have to wait to see what happens. ;D 
> 
> And I'm so sorry this is slightly short, but the next chapters where we find out who the people are will be a lot longer I hope. I'm just not very good at writing really long chapters without a muse. 
> 
> So, next chapter should probably be up Thursday/Friday and I hope you enjoyed this chapter <3
> 
> P.S: If you want me to include one of your OCs for one of the five survivors mentioned in his chapter, please comment them now! I would like you to include their: Name, gender, looks, weapon preferences, personality traits, hobbies, bad/good person etc and any other information that is specific to your character. If you comment after Thursday then the person will not be included. Of course if you don't want me to include your OC, I won't, I will use my own. Deadlines for OCs will be 13th March (Today)-16th March (at night depending where you are.)
> 
> Suggestions for further chapters are welcome as well until I say otherwise.
> 
> Have a great day/night! <3


	11. Trust

_"She_ said _'Hands up',_ or do ya want me to blow your brains out? Every single one of ya's!" A middle-aged, stocky man cocked his shotgun at the seven survivors, clearly not intimidated they had two more teammates than they did.

"Yeah! We can easily tie you all up and feed you to the damn zombies!" A woman scolded, waving her pistol in the general direction of snacking infected.

"Woah, y'all we don't want any troubl—" Ellis was silenced by shotgun pipes being shoves right against his temple. And that finally set Nick off.

Drawing his deagle from his holster he pointed at the man with the shotgun, eyes ablaze with fury and his hands slowly tightening around the trigger. He'd done the deed a thousand times in the past, what would one more do?

"Take your fucking shotgun from his head and shove it up your ass." Nick's eyes narrowed and he scowled at the man. The man laughed and just shoved the pipes further into Ellis' head.

"Guys, look, maybe they aren't as bad as we think they are. Lets all just lower our guns, alright?" A teenager spoke, trying to make peace between the two groups. 

"How do Oi know they ain't bandits?!" The man snarled, looking Nick straight in the eye.

"I hate bandits." Rochelle slapped Francis on the shoulder.

"Bandits? We're not bandits! We're trying to get through this apocalypse just like you. But we just need to help both our teammates. So please just lower the gun..." Rochelle tried reasoning, flicking the safety off of her AK-47 just in case.

"God damnit, Miles! Why can't you just be considerate for once?!" Another woman yelled at the man with the shotgun, now formerly known as Miles, before stomping down and yanking the shotgun away from Ellis' head and from Miles' hands. The mechanic let out the deep, shaky breath he didn't know he was holding and slowly backed away until he felt Nick put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

"And you too, Ash? Have a heart, darlin'!" She shook her head in disappointment before ushering the two away. She finally turned to the teenager. 

"Cas, hun, the generator outside is broken again, would you mind fixing it for me?" The teenager nodded, which left the new woman with the seven survivors.

"I deeply apologise for those idiots' behaviour towards y'all. My name’s Molly, and what brings you folks here on this fine day?" She smiled warmly at the seven, which surprisingly only creeped them out.

"Fine day? It's the fucking zombie apocalypse." Nick muttered, shoving his deagle back in his holster reluctantly. He felt the mechanic beside him elbow him in the ribs. 

"'Ey now listen mister, you look like a bit of a bad apple, but you ain't gonna be like that around _me_ or me and you are gonna fall out real soon." Her eyes narrowed; that kind hearted woman they saw seconds ago disappearing until it reappeared again moments later. The gambler grumbled under his breath. 

"Two of our teammates are injured, one critically and the other’s just bleeding badly on the face and neck. We were looking for a place for them to rest up when we saw this place. We were wondering if you could help us?" Zoey explained, looking at the woman with pleading eyes. 

"Well hell, why didn't ya just say so? C'mon!" She began to lead the survivors towards their house atop the hill. 

The others walked with Molly, asking her questions and wondering how they'd maintaned the base for such a long period of time without it getting overrun by the infected. 

Nick and Ellis lagged behind though, the boy scanning around the area frantically; his face pale and his normally cheery exterior gone and replaced with an expression of worry. 

This place didn't look safe, it looked like a haunted house. Something off of those crazy horror movies him and Keith used to watch in the past, where the killer leads the kids into some house and murders them or something. 

Oh God, he hoped that wasn't the case. Great, he just made himself more paranoid. 

"You okay, El?" The gambler asked with a soft tone, breaking the mechanic from his thoughts.

He didn't answer, just looked down. The man next to him scoffed and slowly slipped an arm around his waist.

"Never been pointed at with a gun?" 

"Well yeah, but I jus' got a bad feelin' 'bout this...I don' like it 'ere." El mumbled, gazing up at the house. 

"We have to stay here at least until Coach is back on his feet. You don't have to like it; but it's better in there than out here." He didn't want Ellis to get hurt, but they had to stay here for the meantime.

The boy sighed and was about to ask why Nick looked so pissed lately when Molly shouted from the porch of the house at the two men.

"C'mon boys! Everyone’s inside and we wanna meet y'all!" 

The two quickened their pace and entered the house where they saw the previous people.

The girl they'd seen before spoke up first. She wore a green and black plaid shirt with a grey unzipped hoodie over the top and a beanie hung loosely on her head. She also wore navy ripped jeans as well as black, laced up combat boots. She had short, curly brown hair and bright hazel eyes.

"Hey, uh, we're sorry about before. Outside, I mean. We just have to be careful, yanno? Never know who you can trust these days. I'm Ashlee by the way, but people call me Ash." And with that she got up, but when she reached the threshold, she stopped. "Oh, and I'm not very sociable. Or whatever the fuck that means; I'm just good with a gun." She left the room after.

"I'll never understand what fantasy that damn girl lives in. She pretty much just stays around us to get supplies." Molly shook her head. 

"She's good with a gun, that's all that matters. Aye, Oi am Miles, if Molly hadn't already informed ya of that. We gotta be careful for bandits, ya hear me? Oi don't expect ya's to trust me right away after our rough start, but Oi got your back." He gave them a big bearded grin. He then turned to Ellis and gave him a sickening smile.

"Let's put what happened behind us, ye? Oi don't want no trouble with you, kid." Miles grinned at him. 

"...Sure." The mechanic replied, not really bothered. 

Miles wore a heavy, forest green jacket with black jeans and his shotgun was thrown over his shoulder. Ever since they'd seen him, he hadn't had put the damn thing down, and that scared them all. A mans' best friend is a firearm, in his case. 

Next, they turned to the teenager who had been respectful to them before. He had dirty blonde hair and tanned skin, he wore vintage glasses binded with tape and partly cracked on the left side. He wore a blue undershirt with a white, buttoned up shirt over the top; grey jeans and standard trainers. 

"This is Caspian, the youngest of our group." Molly smiled.

"I can introduce myself, you know." He shook his head, but a smile was present on his face. 

"Psh, yeah yeah. I've heard the drill; I'm gonna go start dinner. Y'all are welcome to drop on by any time and Cas here can show ya to ya rooms upstairs! We'll take care of...Uh, what are y'alls' names?" 

"I'm Rochelle; and this is Zoey, Louis, Francis, Nick, Ellis and Coach." She pointed to each of them individually, Molly nodded.

"Well, go on ahead to make yourselves at home! Oh and there's one more y'all gonna meet, 'cept he ain't the most _talkative_ fellow, to say the least. 'Ey, James! C'mon down boy!"

The supposed 'James' dragged his feet down the stairs, his face constantly hidden by a hood, a long katana slung on his back. They couldn't see his eyes, but he tilted his gaze upwards to take in the sight of the new survivors. And as quickly as he arrived, as quickly he was gone. 

"Oh, don't mind him," Molly jumped in cheerfully, noticing the teams' discomfort, "He's always like that around new people. Once ya get to know him, he's sweet as pie." 

Because that was totally easy to believe.  

"Now, Cas show our _guests_  where to go. They must be awful tired..." The way the woman exaggerated the word 'guests' seemed to go unknown to the others, but it just sent shivers down the mechanics' spine. He didn't like this at all, and he wanted to leave right _now._ Hell, even if nobody followed him away! He just wanted _out._

 _"_ Alright. Follow me, guys." Caspian lead the survivors to the staircase that creaked with every step they took, how ever small it was, and ricketed when another foot joined the other. It was all too weird.

"I'm sorry about this, but we only have three normal rooms and two double ones. So some of you can have your own and two pairs will have to share. If you need anything just let me know and dinner will be served shortly!" The teenager smiled before walking away, tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it all the while.

Compared to the others, that kid seemed the most trustworthy and civil. 

But none of them wanted to know what 'dinner' was going to be. 

As Zoey went towards Ellis to ask him whether they wanted to bunk rooms or not, that discussion was quickly silenced by the gambler dragging the mechanic into a double room with him and slamming the door in Zoey’s face. Rochelle hid her laughter at the scene by leading Francis into the room with her. That left Louis, Zoey and Coach with their own rooms. 

Miles came up a little while later with medical supplies to help tend to Coach and Louis' wounds with the help of Zoey. They managed to clean and disinfect the wounds but they'd have to wait until they'd stopped causing the men distress to stitch them. If they stitched them now, they would only become torn quickly.

Back in Nick and Ellis' room, Nick was checking the place out while the mechanic sat on the edge of the bed, his knee bouncing up and down repeatedly without him even noticing. 

"Ellis, you need to relax. If these people were gonna try any shit, they would've done so already." The suited man sighed, watching his lover lay back on the bed and shrug.

"I can feel they're bad, Nick. I don' know but..." He was rapidly shut up by the gambler pressing his lips to his and slowly moving to hover over him. He was practically on top of the younger man now. 

"If you honestly think I'd let them hurt you, even if they were bad which they _aren't_ , you're insane. I do care about you Ellis, but this is our best bet here. It's either this or battling hordes of infected, everything." 

"I guess tha's wise..." He sighed, curling his hands and taking a grip on Nicks' jacket.

There wasn't much talking after that, they were too busy kissing and tasting each other, trying to get as much of each other as they could. As they broke away for air, something suddenly sparked in the back of the mechanics' mind.

"'Ey Nick, why did yew look so annoyed at Zoey earlier?" He asked. 

_Fucking tits._

"Oh please, she's a bitch. She looks like a damn bitch. She was practically batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair at you today. Trust me, I hate her in general.

"Jealous, eh?" The mechanic smiled. "Don' worry, Nick. I only have eyes for ya, nobody else." He answered truthfully, his eyes softening.

"Good." They then kissed again; longer and deeper than before. One of their hands resting on the other while the others' fingers entwined with their own, enjoying and cherishing this moment they had. 

Then there was a knock at the door. 

Oh thank God it was Rochelle. 

She walked in like she owned the damn place and she took one look at the two before a huge grin broke across her face. 

"Am I interrupting something, boys?" She asked, leaning on the wall behind her.

"As a matter of fact, yes." He then turned to Ellis and pecked him on the lips. The mechanic nearly jumped out of his skin at Rochelle's voice, and made an effort to get up; nearly kicking Nick in the chest as he did so.

He stopped mid action though, face red and looked at Nick. "Wait, she knows?" 

"She practically relishes in that very fact, Overalls." 

"Anyway, I just came to get you guys for dinner. If you are done here, I mean, I wouldn't want to interrupt anything." She giggled before rushing back out their bedroom. 

"Looks like we're cutting this session short, El." He smirked, implying they weren't done yet before they both made their way downstairs. 

" _Dinner is served..."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep this is out a day early. You should feel special ;D 
> 
> Well, technically I feel special for having such great fans of this story, so take this early chapter as a thank you for all your lovely comments! <3 
> 
> So...Are these new survivors who they say they are? Or are they something else?
> 
> Or something worse? Muahahaha XD
> 
> You'll just have to wait and see ^-^
> 
> By the way, Caspian isn't my character! He belongs to the lovely MikelInSpace who's account is here: http://archiveofourown.org/users/MikelInSpace/pseuds/MikelInSpace
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a great day/night! <3


	12. Not who they seem

The plates were aligned neatly along the table, the cutlery in a perfect position and the cups full to the top with water. Even though it was a shoddy, old, wooden table, it still was presented nicely. 

What was on those plates though was a totally different story. 

There were a few vegetables, some rolls and a roughly cut, chunk of blood red meat on the side. The vegetables and the rolls looked edible, but the meat looked like it hadn't even been cooked, and it didn't look like animal meat either. 

They all felt sick to their stomachs. 

That's not what they think it is. 

"Well, hell, are y'all just gonna stand around all day? C'mon sit down and dig in!" Molly chided before she cut up some of the meat and ate it. She didn't even hesitate as it took too long to chew and took more than one swallow to get down. 

Wait, where was Coach and Louis? They were surprised they hadn't noticed before...

Something wasn't right. 

Nevertheless, Nick, Rochelle, Zoey and Francis sat down, but Ellis didn't. 

"I'm...uh, gonna go wash my hands. Yeah..." He ignored the worried look his teammates gave him and bolted for the stairs, unbeknownst to the fact someone had left the table the same time as he did. 

"So," Molly said then, "What did y'all do for a livin'?" 

"I was a reporter. I worked for a news station in Ohio." Rochelle explained, staring down at the food on her plate like it was alive. 

"I belonged to a gang." Francis shrugged. "Went to jail twice, that was a blast though." Molly scoffed at that.

"I was a college student, I studied movies and directors; I always wanted to direct my own movies. But I spent most my time watching Zombie movies. Ironic." Zoey sighed, eating a little bit of a vegetable. 

Nick didn't answer; he too had the same thoughts as Ellis, and was about to make a break for it too when Miles' eyes caught his and he felt paralysed, almost as if he was glued to his seat. 

The new survivors were getting suspicious; none of them had touched the meat except for the owners of this house; well, except Caspian, he had been respectful to all of them and he seemed a bit wary himself of what was on his plate. Their once nice stares were now becoming mischievious, and James had left at the same time as Ellis did and went to the kitchen instead.

He hadn't came back since.

"What about ya, mate?" Miles asked Nick. 

"I was a gambler. Nothing special." He answered simply, not taking his eyes off his food. He tried a bit of the bread roll and it tasted good enough to eat, so he slowly sunk his teeth into it again. 

"Ah, did ya roll in the cash?" 

"Where did James go?" He asked, switching the subject quickly. Molly and Miles shared a look.

"He prefers to eat alone, you know. He's just that type of person; same with Ash. She eats in the garden. Don' know why, but she's a weird kid." 

Francis started to cut a bit of the meat, his knife nearly breaking at how thickly cut and raw it was. When he sawed it open however, he immediately felt ill as he watched the tiniest bit of blood soak through. 

If one of them didn't try it though, it wouldn't be long till one of the others realised they knew something. 

Fuck it.

Francis slowly ate a bit of the meat, his teeth grinding together, desperate to chew the unusual food. Eventually it broke down and it firmly slid down his throat. 

He swallowed down the bile that quickly formed in his stomach. 

There was no talking afterwards; only the sound of knives and forks as well as the occasional mutter under their breath from Molly, who had their eyes glued to all of them. 

This was gonna be a long dinner. 

* * *

As soon as Ellis had left the kitchen, he instantaneously dashed for the stairs, ignoring the silent footsteps behind him. If the meat he saw was what he thought it was, he had to find Louis and Coach and _fast._

Because his biggest fear right now wasn't that they were eating a stranger per se, but the chance they could've been eating their _teammate._

Not that any of them would ever touch human meat. 

Once he reached the top of the stairs, he quietly stepped into the room Coach would be in. 

He wasn't.

"Coach? Man, are ya in 'ere?" After recieving no answer from his teammate, he took in the rooms' surroundings. Something caught his eye that made him stop in his tracks. 

The medkit was still _full;_ indicating that it _hadn't been used._

And Zoey was supposed to help Miles patch Coach _and_ Louis up! He grabbed the kit off the table and swung it onto his back.

He started to panic; he sprinted out the room and to Louis', hoping to find the man there. 

"Louis? Are y'all alrigh'?..." He whispered into the darkness of the room. Again, there was no answer; except for the howling off the wind outside. 

As he went to leave the room however, there was a faint sound around him. 

Groaning. 

_Holy shit. No, no, no..._

He turned to the bookcase across from him where the sounds were coming from. They weren't infected, they were _human._  

And they sounded terrifyingly similar to his teammates' voices. 

As he focussed in on the bookcase, he could see the dim outline of a steel door behind it as well as a little light shining through the cracks. Shadows were cast along the floor of two bodies...

"Ellis! Hun, are ya gonna come down and eat with us? Ya food is still on the table!" Molly called up to him, making him freeze to the spot. 

_I needa find Coach and Louis before it's too late..._

He had to help whoever it was behind that door; and he knew it was Coach and Louis! He needed to get to them before they bled out! 

Without thinking his next actions through, he pushed against the bookcase until it moved out of the way of the steel door fully. The door was locked; of course it was.

He scanned the room again, looking for something to pry it down with when he spotted a crowbar under Louis' bed. He rapidly grabbed it before shoving the claw in between the doors' hinges. With a few strong tugs and pulls, it finally came loose, the hinge flying off the door and making it openable. 

He carefully pushed the door open and his nostrils were invaded by the putrid smell of blood and bile, the walls coated in crimson red, undoubtedly blood, and there he saw them; the two bodies slumped against the walls, hands tied above their heads, decorated in blood and their mouths binded with tape. 

Coach and Louis.

His hand went to his mouth as the two figures looked up at him; pain written all over their faces. As he took a step forward to help said men, they began to fidget; they shook their heads and nodded towards him; trying to talk to him through the tape, trying to strain their arms to point _at_ him. 

But why would they point at him? 

_Oh shit._

He froze to the spot; feeling a body touch him from behind; a blade going to his neck in a flash. There was a sting against his pulse on his neck before he felt nothing. 

Everything went black.

* * *

Dinner had dragged along for way too long. James hadn't returned and neither had Ellis, they couldn't even hear their footsteps upstairs anymore. 

_Where the fuck is he. Ellis, I swear to God if you've gotten yourself killed..._

Nope, not even going to go there with those thoughts. 

Well, it wasn't dinner that had dragged on; it was the simple matter that Molly and Miles didn't want them to leave yet. 

And they were curious to what the fuck they'd just eaten considering Francis looked like he was going to puke any second. 

"Where is Louis and Coach? Why weren't they down here when we were called for dinner?" Zoey asked, worried.

"Well they were restin' up, little lady." Miles explained. "Tha's why Oi told ya Oi would patch 'em up for ya."

"Did you give them any food?"

"Yep, left it on the side for 'em." 

"I think we're gonna go see them now." Nick demanded, rising from his seat. He was surprised when Molly and Miles did the same.

"But we ain't even had dessert! I make a fine baked—" Molly started but was cut off by Nick, who had his _deagle_  out.

"Why won't you let us see them?" Rochelle, Zoey and Francis had rose to their feet as well by this point, backing up towards Nick and away from the people at the end of the table. 

Ash and James walked in then. They each drew their guns and aimed at the four; except for Caspian, he looked shocked and appalled by what he was seeing unfold right in front of him. He stood up too and looked around frantically.

"Guys what's going on? And where _did_ Ellis go too? Actually, I stopped hearing everything upstairs a while ago!" Caspian questioned, getting a look of shock off of Molly.

"Cas, hun, we'll talk later. Just go outside." 

"But I wanna know what's happened!—"

"I said get out or you can _join_ 'em when we blow their heads off!" She growled, making the teenager back off slightly. He didn't draw his weapon, but he stayed neutral as the four approached the others. It was an even fight, but Nick was the only one with his gun, the others left their's in their rooms.

"Everythin' could've turned out alright...But no, y'all gotta fuck it up!" Molly put her finger on the trigger of her gun. 

"Tell us what the fuck we just ate!" The gambler demanded, aiming his deagle right between the womans' eyes. She began to laugh hysterically. 

"One of your own..." She smiled grimly. Caspians' eyes widened and he reached for the knife from the table and backed up to the newer survivors.

"You've been _feeding us humans this whole time?!"_  He shrieked, using the knife to defend himself if the fight escalated. The others were shocked; Caspian didn't know this?! 

"Oh Caspian, we are your family now...You wouldn't hurt us like we wouldn't hurt you." Ash grinned, already taking aim. 

"No! You are sick! Mentally sick!" He panicked. 

Behind them, James blocked the exit. The hooded man also managed to stealthily snatch Nicks' gun from his sweaty palms and wind Caspian by knocking him hard in the gut. He fell to his knees panting. 

As Rochelle went to help him up, Miles hit her hard in the head with the butt of his gun and she fell to the floor unconscious. Francis saw _red._  He lunged for Miles and got a few good punches in, he managed to pin Miles and attack him repeatedly using his strength but Molly was by his side in seconds, knocking him out with the butt of her gun. 

Molly grinned as she watched Miles punch Francis' unconscious form hard around the face and sling Rochelle over his shoulder.

"It's your choice...What's it gonna be? Death, or you can surrender now and we'll save you the pain..."

As Nick and Zoey went to answer, James and Ash injected something into their necks and they fell to the floor.

Caspian was dragged into another room and watched as Miles towered over him; eyes fuming, clenched fists as he swung for the teenager. 

The last thing they remembered before it all went dark was the feeling of the carpet scraping against their skin as they were dragged to an unknown location. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg. I uploaded two chapters back to back, kinda. One yesterday and one today :D 
> 
> Also, lemme just say, I got scared shitless when writing this. MY LIGHT KEPT FLICKERING AND I THOUGHT THERE WAS GHOSTS IN MY ROOM. ;__;
> 
> Spooky shit mate. 
> 
>  
> 
> Anywhoooo, some people were starting to get the vibe of cannibals, and you were right xD 
> 
> So yeahhhh, the survivors are screwed :P Next chapter will probably be their escape.
> 
> If they do escape. Muahahah. *cough* 
> 
> I'm sorry I love them all really ;A;
> 
> Edit: Rereading ALL the chapters, I always make poor Ellis the damsel in distress. ;A; *cough* Mostly so Nicky can save him *cough* What? I didn't say anything, not at all. >.>


	13. Escape

The white light of the room was blinding as a distraught Nicholas was startled awake by an eerily real dream he'd just experienced. It surprised him slightly; he'd honestly thought he had done the deed and it would be forgotten. But it seemed it'd always haunt him now.

Especially after the twist of fate in his dream. 

He tried to move; he couldn't. He tried to open his mouth, he couldn't. 

And why was he tied up? 

Like a flash of lightening, it all came back. The meal, his lover disappearing, the sting of a needle quickly occupying his minds' thoughts; they'd obviously drugged him to manage to drag him into this blinding room which caused his eyes to not be in full focus yet.

He blinked and strained his eye-sight; the more awake his eyes were becoming the more he could see around him. He spotted  six other bodies around him; he just hoped they weren't dead. 

Or worse, _living_ dead. 

There was seven in his group; he counted his friends’ bodies around him including himself, they totalled up to six. 

 _Fuck._  

Next to him was Rochelle and Zoey, the two unconscious. Francis was diagonally positioned from him, growling against the tape plastered to his lips and opposite the gambler was Louis and Coach, who were unconscious too and looked the worst; they looked like rotten corpses. Nick just hoped that wasn't the case. 

He couldn’t see his lover. Had they already...?

"Are ya gonna show us where your damn supplies and weapons are, kid? Or Oi will give ya another black eye ta match." Nick strained his neck to look at where the source of the voice was coming from. Atop a table laid Ellis, his hands tied to one post of the table with Miles towering above him. 

He saw red; he wanted nothing more to break the ropes and run over there and beat Miles till he was satisfied with how dead he was. 

"The fuck are ya askin' me for? I think yew already fuckin' know." Ellis spat, making Miles raise his meat cleaver he held in his right hand. 

"Care to repeat that? Keep in mind Oi could easily chop ya up and cook ya in the oven." That made the mechanic gag; geez, and he thought Zombies were the ones desperate to eat him. 

"Y'all are mentally sick. Ya know tha'?" The mechanic dared to say. 

Miles growled and threw the cleaver at the table, it clattered and stuck to the side of the table. The boy drew in a deep breath and willed himself to keep calm. 

"I don't think you know who you're messin' around with, kid. You know how easy it is to kill a man in the state you're in now?" Miles grimly whispered to him, raising his knife up and hovering it just above the boy's chest.

"C-c'mon man, why can't ya just let us all go and we'll be on our way..." Ellis' voice shook with fear as he felt the tip of the blade against his skin. 

"Oh, you were so confident a minute ago...Didn't think Oi was gonna do it, eh? Predictable, but Oi ain't surprised one lil bit." Miles smirked. "Or maybe, Oi could chop ya up in other places before stabbin' ya in the heart." 

Nick was getting desperate, he was trying to untie the ropes, shake out of them or loosen them in any way but it wasn't working, he looked up at the scene taking place before him just as a knife entered the mechanic's chest.

Their teammate was stunned and pinned to the wooden table by the knife in his torso. If he moved around too much, it would only hurt even more, and would threaten his life quicker.  

He began to mumble incoherently under his breath, trying to shout which he instantly regretted when their captor turned to him. He watched how the colour was physically draining from his lover's face.

Noticing the eye contact, Miles turned and made his way over to Nick, letting the boy on the table bleed out. He stormed over and lifted the suited man off of his knees before shoving him hard against the wall with his hand around his throat. He squeezed and blocked off the gamblers' air way completely. 

"What did ya say, mate? Oi couldn't hear ya over the sound of your lips smackin' against the tape." He pressed down harder, enjoying the sight of the swelling forming around Nicks' neck. He tried to inhale, but he couldn't. Black spots started to envelope his vision.

With all his might, Nick managed to get his knee up and wind Miles by kneeing him in the chest and got some space between them. With Miles currently trying to catch his breath, Nick took the opportunity to smack Miles over the head with a chair. It knocked him out, but didn't fully kill him. He didn't have much time and he'd have to—

_Bang._

The gambler turned around slowly, to see Caspian with his gun aimed at Miles' head, blood pooling around his skull as he lay motionless on the floor. 

"Oh thank God, you guys are alright." Caspian sighed, lowering his gun. The teen let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. Nick walked over to him and signaled for the teenager to untie him. Caspian slowly pulled the tape off of his lips, careful not to hurt him before loosening the ropes around his wrists so he could slide out of them. 

As soon as he was untied, he bolted for the table his lover was on. He beckoned Caspian over.

"Jesus Christ..." Was all Caspian had to say. 

The gambler got to work untying the mechanic's hands from the table leg and then was shocked to see the slightest of blood dripping out the corner of Ellis' mouth. Nick opted for a new tactic and tried to haul his lover off the table but it only caused even more damage and made him cry out in pain.

After hearing the pained noise, Nick immediately pulled away and looked down to see the large bloodstain slowly expanding on the boys' shirt surrounding the knife. It was buried in his chest and if he didn't get it out quickly, the mechanic would die for sure. 

Meanwhile, Caspian peeked out the door and checked for Molly, Ash or James. They didn't need to come in and see them like this; they'd be dead. And he was planning on showing the survivors the secret exit out of this hell hole. 

Nick placed both his hands on the handle of the knife and took a deep breath before looking to Ellis who was struggling to keep his eyes open. 

"Hey, Overalls, stay with me, alright? I just need to get it out. Just try not to make too much noise, okay? I'll do it on three, alright?" No reaction. "Ellis, can you hear me?"

"Yeah..." The mechanic replied weakly, looking at the gambler. 

Nick looked up at him worryingly before muttering a quiet 'One...Two...Three.' and gently starting to pull the knife out. The boy cried out again which didn't make Nick stop but he tried to pull it out with even more care. When he got half of the knife out and Ellis' cries were starting to get louder, he had to put his hand over Ellis' mouth to make sure he didn't alert the cannibals. 

He finally got it out though thankfully. Now he had to stop the bleeding before it was too late. He needed medical supplies and fast. For the meantime though, he pulled his suit jacket off and pushed it against the wound. 

"Sooo...Are you guys a couple?" Caspian asked out of the blue, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"So what if we are?" Nick fired back, still focussing on finding something. 

"Really? I'm just glad I'm not the only 'not-completely-straight-guy' in the apocalypse." His blush got darker. They were all males here, so why be shy?

"Good for you. Untie the others for us while you're at it?" He mumbled. Caspian nodded and started to wake up and untie their friends.

"H-Holy shit..." The boy choked out, the blood spreading around his body. He vision was becoming blurred from the light he was forced to stare at above him. He had to turn his body to the side and cough up a concerning amount of blood. 

"Fuck, fuck! Stay with me, El." He coaxed, turning the boy back on his back again and now frantically searching for any medical supplies. 

"Thank you, my brother." Francis nodded to the teenager. 

"Jesus, my head hurts..." Rochelle muttered, rubbing her wrists from where the ropes had been. Francis hauled her to her feet. 

"What happened? Oh my God, Ellis!" Zoey exclaimed, at the mechanics' side in an instant. She applied pressure to his wound like Nick did moments before. Caspian leaned towards Nick while he was searching.

"She must really get on your nerves. Having her hands all over him." He whispered. "I would be." He answered truthfully. 

"You don’t say." 

"Oh my...C-Coach, L-Louis?" Rochelle ground out, her breathing becoming heavy as she stared at the two men. They were both bloodied and very critically injured; it'd be a miracle if they could get them out of here alive.

"Ho ho, a first aid kit!" Francis gloated, holding the kit in one hand. Nick immediately snatched it from his palm. "What the fuck, Colonel Sanders—"

"It's not for me, it's for Ellis. So shut the fuck up, greasy pig." The biker rolled his eyes and swore under his breath but let the gambler have the kit. 

When Nick approached the mechanic however, Ellis put his hand up and shook his head. 

"They need it more than me, Nick...They're gonna die soon." He gestured towards Coach and Louis with a nod of his head. The gamblers' eyebrows shot up and he looked down at him, surprised.

"Ellis, there was a knife in your _chest_. You're bleeding too fast and _you're_ gonna die in a minute if you don't let me help you." 

That made the boy fall silent. Nick looked down at him a moment longer before speaking to the reporter and they split the containments of the kit fifty-fifty. Sadly, there wasn't enough in there to fully help all of the injured people, so they just focussed on bandaging their wounds first. Rochelle could help Coach and Louis who were now awake and groaning in pain. 

He wasn't leaving Ellis' side.

"We're gonna need more than one medkit. Hey, brat, do you have any extras in this fucked up house?" The gambler asked.

Caspian rolled his eyes at the nickname, but replied nonetheless, "Yeah. We have two extra inside, I can get them while you guys stay here. I'll be back soon, they aren't far." 

"Be careful." Zoey said to the teenager before Caspian was out the door.

Nick scowled at Zoey all the time while he added pressure to the knife wound on his lovers' chest; God, couldn't she see that Ellis was obviously uninterested? What a desperate whore. 

After spotting the gamblers' gazes a few times, Rochelle called Zoey over to help her with bandaging Coach and Louis up.

"I'm gonna go check up on Miles, Ash! He should still be down 'ere." Mollys' voice echoed throughout the room. 

"Fuck, fuck! Molly's coming down here!" Louis called out to everyone.

"I'm gonna give that hag something to remember for making me eat human meat." Francis picked up the bloody knife that was once Miles and stood by the door. The moment Molly opened the door, she was met with a knife between her eyes. She fell to the floor to reveal Caspian behind her. 

"Guys, we have to go. I know a secret exit out of here; it was built by Molly before. If we can get to it, we can sneak out and steal their truck around back easily. But we have to get moving now, before Molly comes in and sees us—Oh." Caspian looked down at Molly's dead body. "Nevermind, let's just get outta here!" 

"Let's stick together, y'all. And thanks for savin' our asses, young'uns." Coach struggled out, the pain still flaring inside him. 

Coach and Louis weren't fully healed, but they were on their feet. They couldn't run as fast as the others would be able to, but they were alive and that's all that mattered. 

Ellis got up and onto his feet, but stumbled forward and was about to hit the floor when Nick appeared in front of him and caught him in his arms. He shut his eyes tight and waves of pain flowed through him. 

"Easy there fireball, easy. We can take it slow, don't push yourself too much." He said as he helped his younger counterpart walk. Ellis looked up at him and nodded, grateful.

They followed Caspian down a hallway where they spotted Ash. She was leaning against the wall so immersed by her gun that she didn't seem to notice the seven opposite her.

"Let's just keep quiet and sneak by." Zoey suggested.

"No, she's a good shot. She's prepared for anything; I know how to catch her off guard." Caspian slowly snuck down the hallway before sneaking behind the girl. He bashed her in the head with the barrel of his gun and she slumped to the floor, unconscious. 

After Ash was taken care of, they trekked down another hallway and into the boiler room where they saw a hole in the ground covered by a tanker. They all hauled the tanker off the hole before climbing down the ladder attached to the wall. They all managed to get down safely. 

Down the ladder was a series of tunnels; left and right, forwards and backwards. They let Caspian lead the way of course, it was such a large area to try and navigate through and they were lucky that the teenager knew where he was going. It looked so easy to get lost in such a place.

They took a left, then a right, then forwards, another right...Rochelle had stopped paying all attention when they'd taken yet the fifth right in the space of two minutes. But then again, there really was no point in paying attention if they were positive that they'd never come here again. 

They finally reached another ladder which led them to the back of the house. They saw the truck ahead of them and began striding towards it. 

When a deafening, sickeningly familiar roar was heard.

Tank. 

The massive beast pounded on its chest angrily before charging for the group of seven; they all quickly dived out the way and made a beeline for the truck. Once all inside with Caspian at the wheel and the Tank hot on their asses, Cas stepped down on the gas before they were zooming off, just as one of the Tanks' fists was about to collide with the back of the truck. 

And as they drove away from the horrific house full of sick and twisted people, they watched as the Tank threw itself through the window of the house and sent James crashing into a wall. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be out yesterday, but MY INTERNET WAS DOWN FOR A WHOLE DAY. A WHOLE DAY. XD 
> 
> It was hell, my friends.
> 
> But here it is now! And it looks like Caspians' gonna be sticking around for a while. And Coach and Louis are okay, lol I'm not gonna kill them off that early.
> 
> Cx jk idk whether i'll kill them off or not; only time will tell! :D
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and have a great day/night <3
> 
> Also, I normally write these chapters at night, starting at 9 pm and finishing arouns 11-12pm, and I gotta say, its hell. I get so tired and then I end up dozing off while writing xD and then I wake myself up and say to myself 'No! You can only sleep when you've finished this chapter! >:I I'm so dedicated I swear. XD But it feels like sudh an accomplishment when I do finish a chapter.
> 
> I need a break. And a life.


	14. A risky idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE: The issue where I couldn't get on to AO3 has been resolved :D! 
> 
> Was something to do with my website accesses or some bizarre shit like that.
> 
> At least I'm back and can update and respond now <3
> 
> This chapter is slightly inspired by TWD since i'm a total fangirl of the show and game, and it's 4000+ words so feel special. :3:
> 
> Enjoy! :D

The truck journey was anything but quiet, the now eight survivors chattered constantly, trying to learn new things about Caspian and the information about the cannibals that had tried to eat them. Ellis stayed silent for most of the journey surprisingly, though he made the occasional moan of pain as Nick tried to stop the wound bleeding and stitch it up if he could.

"How didn't you know they were like this? Eating people, I mean." Zoey asked, genuinely curious as to why the teenager didn't know his own damn teammates were cannibals.

"Well, I trusted them with my very life! Hell, if they hadn't of saved me from one of those huge infected that had managed to corner me when I was out here before, I'd been dead a while ago. It was that same infected that crashed into our house as we drove away." He responded, taking a right on the empty, deserted road.

"And your point is? For all we know you could just be planning to kill us." Nick pointed out, his teammates making no efforts to disagree with him.

Caspian sighed. "I'm not like them; I was just a baseball coach at my high school when the outbreak happened, I have no idea who they were but I know nothing about cannibalism. The meat they served us at dinner I never touched; I would never put innocent survivors in danger, or anyone for that matter." He clarified. Coach gave him a big grin.

"Hell, I used to coach at my high school too, young'un. 'Cept I did football, of course. Never really got into 'em baseball teams." Coach spoke up, glad to know there was another person he could talk to about sports.

"Really? Football wasn't my strongest sport, hah..." The boy trailed off, the two ex-coaches having a good conversation about sports.

"How are you feeling, Ellis?" Zoey asked, and just by the sound of her voice, Nicks' skin crawled and he tightened his grip on the bandages until his knuckles turned white.

"He's not doing the best right now, Zoey. Miles really stabbed him close to his heart." Rochelle spoke, her tone sad and distraught. "Nick just needs to stitch him up and he should be fine." 

Zoey turned to Rochelle, worried. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Louis scowling at the injured man and her, envy plastered all over his features; _Why doesn't she care that much when I'm hurt?!_

Rochelle was about to say someting reassuring to her, but Caspian opened his mouth to speak first.

"Close to his _heart?_ 'Should be fine'? There's a huge possibility he has internal bleeding right now, and if he does, you need to stitch _inside_  before bandaging. And really, I've only seen nurses do that. You need to keep an eye on him. If you see any syptoms on him of abdominal pain, lightheadedness, dizziness or fainting, he has internal bleeding.

"I doubt it's that bad." Nick spoke out, refusing to put Caspian's thought in his mind. 

"Trust me, I've seen it before. The person lived, but by a short possibility." 

"And how do you know this?" Louis blurted out, voicing the thought everybody else had.

"We were attacked by bandits before." Louis wanted to know more, but the baseball coach was done talking about it.

"I hate bandits." Francis shook his head and Louis started questioning him about why he hated everything. The two began squabbling before Francis threatened Louis that he was going to punch his lights out.

"So they turned to eating new survivors instead. Fucking pleasant." The gambler commented earning a solemn nod from the baseball coach.

"Yeah...Pretty fucked up when you think about it."

" _Pretty_?" Nick retaliated, incredulously.

"Alright! It was a helluva fucked up, don't mean I don't miss 'em though..."

After that, it was silent, except for the mechanics' light breathing and the occasional mumble from Caspian when he accidentally took the wrong turn on the road or had to drive slowly past some infected to make sure he didn't alert them.

Honestly, paranoia was not Nicks' thing, but right now it was hitting him like a truck at full speed. Well, it was two things. One, his lover, and two, this kid driving the damn truck. 

How could they even trust this kid? Sure, he'd saved them and got them away from that sick and twisted group of survivors but what if he planned to do exactly the same to them as the others did?

Okay, so it was one on seven if that ever did happen but he was still allowed to have his doubts about the matter. They hadn't even known the kid for longer than two days and he was already tagging along with them.

But that was how the apocalypse worked now, there was no buildup of friendship or trust, you met a person and you were immediately friends, you were now forced to depend on each other for your own survival. It's funny how you quickly begin to miss the little things in life as soon as an deadly and lethal pandemic decides to wipe out most humans from the face of the Earth and replace them with brainless, teeth gnawing freaks.

Fuck it, now he was going way too deep. There was no point in dwelling on what the world used to be like, it was about time now; about survival.

He tightened the last bandage and secured it, which caused the boy to awaken in a pain-filled state again. Nick gave him a worried look. The mechanic moved his hand to the stab wound on his chest and winced when it still hurt. Nick promptly pulled his hand away. 

"Don't cause yourself too much pain, Overalls. You need to rest right now." 

"Nick's right sweetie." 

"Kinda hard to sleep when I feel like someone's shootin' me in the chest over and over." He sighed. Nick and Ro shared a look. "How much gas we got left, anyway?" 

"Probably enough to keep us going for another three hours, maybe. Molly always used to keep this gas full to the brim, we never really used it, but it's good enough for when you need it. It might be a long and boring ride, so all of you guys should get some sleep." Caspian announced, earning a quick nod off of Rochelle as she manoeuvred to sit comfortably next to Francis, the two sharing a sneaky kiss before the reporter fell asleep.

Louis was slowly drifting off when Zoeys' head lolled to the side and onto his shoulder, unbeknownst to the fact she had fallen asleep a while ago, and he let a smile as well as a light blush cross his face; butterflies dancing in his stomach.

All the survivors seemed at peace, they totally trusted a _teenager_ who had a high chance of _not even having a license_ drive this truck while they slept.

But no, Nick wasn't going to sleep. He wasn't going to put his life at risk if he didn't know what was happening while Caspian was around. But he was so fucking tired at the same time...

Sensing his lovers' paranoia, Ellis gently grasped his calloused hand, squeezing it gently and reassuring him that he was here and okay, that he wouldn't let anything happen to him, ever. When Nick looked at him and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, Ellis only smiled and slowly began to release his hand so Nick could be more comfortable.

The gambler had none of that, though. He kept his grip tightened around Ellis' hand and leaned against him slightly, but not so people could visibly tell, and finally let his eyes slip close, feeling safer with Ellis warmth and presence by his side.

Sleep overtook him quicker than it ever had.

"Hey, why aren't you sleeping?" Caspian asked him, looking in the rear view mirror at Ellis.

He shrugged, "I slept a while ago, purdy awake righ' now."

"How's your wound, by the way?" He could tell Caspian was trying to just make a casual conversation, but by his tone there was something bothering the teen.

"It hurts a lot righ' now. Better than getting thrown in a oven by Miles though. Tha' guy was scary." Caspian laughed at that. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared and was replaced by a frown.

"'Ey, wha's up?"

"You're really lucky to be alive, Ellis, but I doubt you'll just heal from this. I'm not trying to scare you or anything..."He muttered sadly, averting the others' gaze.

A couple of seconds ticked by slowly. "...What do yew mean?" 

"Remember how I talked about how we got attacked by bandits before? Miles stabbed a guy the same way he stabbed you. I said that guy lived by a small possibility. Ellis, he didn't live. He died two days later. We tried to stop him, but like you probably have, he was bleeding internally and we couldn't stitch up inside the wound, and he bled our quickly. It seems Miles' signature move is stabbing people." 

"So...There's a high possibility I'll die from this?" The boy muttered, and Caspian realised how scared he'd probably made him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't make you worried like this. I'm sure you're fine. We can always check it out when we find another house to stay in." He gripped and tapped the steering wheel like he was going through withdrawl. "Sure is boring in here, huh?"

"Yeah, we'll be drivin' fer a while too, eh?" It was hard for Ellis to forget what Cas had told him. 

"Yep."

"Well...I could tell ya a story. I tend ta talk a lot," He rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't entwined with Nicks'.

"Hah, sure. I've got time."

"This one time, my buddy Keith started up a historic tour, on account of his ma took him to Colonial Williamsburg, an' it's like a license to print money at them places. Now, yew might ask yourself how an honest attempt to recreate the majesty of Colonial times turned into raccoon fights at five bucks a pop in Keith's backyard, hah. Man, the answer to tha' particular question is tha' Keith is sharin' a place with his two brothers and them being assholes who wouldn't let them do it anywhere but the backyard; well, add that to Keith didn't technically have any, y'know, history to put on display, but he did have a whole family of raccoons livin' in the chassis of an old car and you'd begin to understand—"

"Ellis, is now the best time?" Nick mumbled groggily from next to him.

"Aw c'mon, man! We're in the truck, nothin's gonna hurt us or nothin'—" As if on fucking cue, a Charger ran out in front of the truck and charged right into it.

Despite the large size difference between the infected and the truck, it surprisingly managed to pull the vehicle into a harsh break, sending all the survivors lurching forward in their seats and smacking against the sides of the seats or truck. Rochelle ended up wacking her arm, Louis and Zoey were thrown into each other and Ellis ended up hurting his wound again. 

Thank God for seat-belts.

But, the Charger definitely didn't think this through fully, because the moment the truck came to a stop, it knocked the Charger clean off balance, sending it sprawling into a nearby tree; a sickening crunch thudding against its' head simultaneously ended its' life.

For such a strong and deadly infected, it sure died easily.

"What happened? Damn, that hurt my arm badly." Rochelle complained.

"Tell that to my shoulder, baby; you were gripping so hard you could've pulled the damn thing off!" Francis joked. She fake-laughed and punched him hard in said shoulder.

"What the hell happened?" Zoey and Louis asked in unison, the two blushing after the strange occurrence.

"Is everyone alright?" Coach asked, rubbing at a cut on his forehead from the sudden brake.

"Ellis, I have half a mind to stitch your mouth shut." Nick growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously to where they were just green slits.

"Man, I didn' mean ta jinx us, I was jus' sayin'. Damn that hurt." He pouted and in front of him, Caspian cursed profoundly.

"God damnit, the brakes' broken and there's a leak in the pipes. There's no point in us going in this truck any further, unless one of you guys can fix it." He sighed.

"Ellis, can you fix it, boy?" Coach asked, hopeful.

"Well, I would, but fixin' a leak ain't as easy as it sounds. I don' have anythin' ta repair it with, and brakes take a while ta fix too. We may as well jus' leave the truck behind an' try an' find a safe house or somethin'." For now, it was probably their best bet, so they all exited the truck.

Wait.

They all stood awkwardly until a slow realisation etched its' way onto their features.

They left all of their supplies and weapons with the other survivors. Fucking hell.

Now, all they had was Caspians' handgun, one gun to perhaps take down maybe a Tank or any special infected for that matter, or a horde even, if they decided to show up.

They all hoped that really wasn't the case.

"We're so screwed." Rochelle whispered under her breath.

"Give me the gun." Nick held his hand out to Caspian, who shied away almost immediately with the handgun.

"Why? How do I know you won't just shoot me and use me as bait?!" He then fucking aimed the weapon at Nicks' face. What the hell.

"Caspian just calm down, okay...We need to keep our heads and think of a plan together, alright?" Zoey tried. The teenagers' hands shook, but his fingers didnt refrain from the trigger.

"Boy, give the gun to Nick. We trust 'im, you should too." Coach then slowly stepped forward towards the teen who had turned slightly calmer after the former coachs' words. When Caspian didn't raise the gun anymore to him, he continued walking slowly towards him.

Rochelles' hand planted on his shoulder and reeled him back slightly. He shrugged it off and continued until he was nearly face to face with the baseball coach. He held his hand out and Caspian hesitantly hovered the gun above his palm before dropping it into his grasp.

He forced a smile for the teen. He then quickly turned and passed the gun to Nick.

Nobody spoke after, but as they began to walk down the open road.

After Caspians' episode, nobody made contact with the boy, they simply let him be. He probably needed time to adjust to the new faces around him; new teammates, new infected he'd probably never seen before. It was easy to get anxious and worried in an apocalypse, and they couldn't blame him for acting in the rash way that he did.

Well, almost all of them didn't blame him. Nick was still the cold-hearted bastard who simply despised this kid. End of story.

After a while of walking, the group finally started to talk to one another again, the initial shock of the past situation leaving them.

"Are you feeling okay?" Nick asked his younger counterpart walking alongside him; which he was surprised hadn't talked in around ten minutes. He was sure he knew why.

"Hm?" The boy was snapped out of his thoughts he didn't know he was so deep in.

"Are you alright?" He repeated, aiming at a stray infected in front of them, considering their teammates were behind them, and shooting it.

"Fine." Nick pinched the bridge of his nose and willed away the urge to scowl. He could tell by the one word answer he got that his lover was lying. 

"Ellis, you suck at lying. If it's about what Caspian said it's a load of bullshit." Nick wasn't too sure he believed that himself.

"Oh...that." He sighed before continuing."He told me about his old teammate, y'know, the one he said that lived through the bandit attack? Yeah, he didn't live through tha'. He had the same injury I did, apparently tha's what Miles did to people.

"I can beat the shit out of him for saying that to you, but he might be lying and just trying to scare you. Let's not forget this kid belonged to a group of cannibals; but no, let's trust him with our very lives!" He exaggerated sarcastically which forced the mechanic to roll his eyes.

"Tha' ain't what I'm implyin'. I jus' think tha' he was worried or somethin', have some more faith in him, Nick."

"Whatever. I still don't trust him." He grumbled under his breath.

"Well, I can't tell ya who ya can and can't like, Nick. Jus' don' be a sourpuss towards him like ya are to me." He caught sight of that infamous scowl his lover proudly owned which only made his smirk grow.

They stopped, frozen, when they spotted what was in front of them.

Even though they weren't even talking that loudly, all of their chattering had somehow alerted a ton of infected to them. There were two sides to this coin.

The good side was that the infected hadn't fully noticed them, thus they hadn't attacked them.

The bad side was that they had all decided to just gravitate towards one area and stand their like morons doing nothing. Why was this bad, you ask? They had created a huge horde, one that the eight wouldn't be able to trek through without suffering a long and painful death.

At any other time, with all their supplies and weapons, the survivors would've happily gone trigger happy and opened fire on the horde, as they would've been able to rip them all to shreds quickly with the enhanced firepower.

Now though, they couldn't do jack shit. They couldn't go around it, as the horde was just too big and they couldn't go through it or they'd be dead.

Or could they?

As they gaped, looking like fishes, at the horde, Caspian had taken to dragging a long dead infected corpse towards them. They all looked at him, disgusted, as he headed towards them.

"What the hell are you doing, man?" Louis questioned, looking quite unsure; which wasn't usual for the optimistic man.

"Listen, this is gonna sound insane, but I have a plan. I've done it before when I was out here on my own...We have to cover ourselves in zombie guts—"

"What?!" They all cut him off at once.

"—and walk slowly and act like them. Once we do that, they will think we are one of them, and we can pass by easily."

"Oh, and what happens when one of these 'disguises' doesn't work and one of us gets mauled to death?" Nick scowled. He hoped that wouldn't be the one he cared deeply about.

"It won't happen, suit, we just have to stick together and we'll be fine." Caspian shot back. This was such a risky plan, but damn it to all hell, did they really have any choice?

"C'mon, Nick, this is our only choice 'ere. Let's just get through this shit, y'all." Coach announced and they were all covering themselves in slimy walker guts and blood. Delightful.  
When they were all smeared in organs and other things they did not want anything to do with, they anxiously approached the horde.

They walked together in a line, they focussed on the persons' back in front of them and followed it with their very life. Caspian was leading and Ellis was behind him with Nick close behind; mostly because he didn't trust the mechanic with anyone else and wanted to make sure he was okay, and if anything went wrong, he had the weapon.

He took his first step into the horde and he already felt like he was going to puke up the liquids he'd drank, since he hardly eaten, right on the spot.

It was fucking terrifying; just being this close to the fuckers was enough to set all of them on edge, to see those putrid, rotting teeth up so close to them, the sweaty, skinny bodies of the infected constantly brushing up against them; the sunken eyes that clashed with their bright ones so quickly it was as if they could see into your soul.

And they thought special infected were the real scary threats here.

They were forced to focus though, to not get paranoid or show any sort of emotions regarding human nature which would alert the horde around them to them.

One infected however decided to stray incredibly close to Zoey, and she stopped. She stared at the mutilated, demented, contorted face that was slowly inching towards her own; the way the infected smelled the human blood inside her.

It opened its' mouth to take a chunk out of her when Louis grabbed her arm and hauled her forward, pushing her in front of him as he hurried her along. She was graciously thank you at the risk he took for her.

They carried on, silently and carefully. The infected bumped into them from all sides, a particular one grabbing Nicks' shoulder before he shoved it away. He scoffed but was silenced by Caspian turning and telling them to keep quiet.

Then there was a scream.

They all turned, alarmed and shocked at the noise, to see Rochelle with an infected biting her upper arm severely. Francis fumed and he threw himself forward into the infected; it stumbled and fell, but not before it had alerted all the other zombies to them.

"HAUL ASS!" Coach yelled, and they were all sprinting through the horde, punching some stray infected out of the way as the hundreds behind them chased them down, eager for the taste of meat between their teeth.

They could see a gap through the infected wall, they could see the seemingly endless road where not an infected was on it for miles, in front of them that is, and immediately dashed for it.

They weren't going to stop running until the infected behind them after stopped because of exhaustion or simply left them alone. Even after that, they would perhaps continue to dart across the roads.

Unless their injuries protested, that is.

Nick was behind the boy, and he instantly paled when he saw the all too familiar crimson red stain Ellis' shirt once more where his recently bandaged wound was. He was supposed to be resting so it could heal; too much running or exercise at all could potentially damage it further.

And it was damaging him, because the mechanic was gradually losing pace, but Nick nudged him along with his shoulder nonetheless; he'd came too far and he wasn't losing him now to some shitty idea from an insane teenager, which went to shit as planned, kill him.

"It's alright, El, keep going, we're almost there." The gambler panted.

They could see a vast, abandoned building ahead of them with a few broken windows and cracked walls. An idea popped into the teenagers head, who was at the front od the group.

"GO LEFT!" He ordered, and they all obliged, diving behind one of the large walls of the building.

Surprisingly, it worked. It actually worked; the infected scrambled by the building unbeknownst to the survivors currently hiding.

After a couple of minutes when all the infected had ran by and it was quiet and clear once again, savour for the sound of all of their laboured breathing, Nick shoved Caspian against the wall and held the gun to his head.

"Nick—" Rochelle tried, but he waved her off instantaneously.

"What the fuck kind of idea was that?! You could've got us all killed, you dumbshit." He growled, pressing the barrel further into the teenagers' skull.

Not even Ellis tried to stop him this time. He just simply stayed quiet and watched the ordeal go down. The reason he couldn't protest was because his vision was slowly getting darker. 

"I'm sorry!" He pleaded, eyes squinting shut and he trembled from his position against the wall. "I was trying to help!" 

"Nick," Rochelle chided again, "It was my fault. I alerted a zombie to me, leave the boy alone. If I hadn't screamed, we would've been fine."

In the background, everyone was oblivious to Zoey's voice. "Hey, Ellis, you don't look too good...Are you okay?" 

"May I remind you that none of this would've _ever_ happened if he hadn't came up with the damn plan?" He ground out, narrowing his eyes at the boy. Coach planted his large hand on his shoulder.

"Nick, my man, this ain't the boy’s fault, nor is it Ro’s. There wasn’t much we could do anyhow; it was either wait till they cleared out or this, and that could'a taken days. Boy, we did the best we could, but spare the lad and we'll figure out what to do with him later." Coach talked him out of the situation and he reluctantly lowered the gun.

Nick glared at Caspian still, but he was officially broken out of his reverie by a 'thud' sound coming from behind him. 

"Oh shit! Guys, Ellis passed out!" Zoey called. 

The gambler turned white and kneeled down by the mechanic. He shook him a few times. 

"Overalls? Ellis, can you hear me?" No answer. "God damnit!" 

"I warned you guys! He's suffering more than you think. We need to find shelter, now." Caspian ordered. 

"Is your arm okay?" Meanwhile, Francis asked Rochelle, which was a dumb question really. The bite was swollen and bleeding heavily, purple surrounding the teeth marks.

"We need to make sure Ellis is okay first. How is he doing, Nick?" 

"He's bleeding again." Nick spoke seriously, watching the bandages become a darker, more vibrant red. The gambler picked him up.

"There's no safe room around here for miles..." Zoey spoke out solemnly. No safe house meant no rest, safety, the assurance you wouldn't be eaten in your sleep.

"Well, this building looks pretty habitable right? At least for the night. Maybe we can barricade any entrances and hunker down for the night so people can rest up. We could also stay an extra day if we needed to if it's safe enough." Louis suggested.

It seemed like a good a plan as any so they all clambered into the deserted building.


	15. Nothing Left

  
As predicted, it was a shit hole inside the building but hell, it was better than being outside with that horde still scrambling around and they still only had one handgun. Even though the building inside may have been pretty shitty, they had to make do with it; so Coach and Francis got to work on barricading the doors and various windows and doors around the cracked walls.

Louis and Zoey decided to check out the upstairs of the place, Nick had given Louis the handgun reluctantly incase they ran into trouble—though he wouldn't have minded if Zoey got eaten up there—while they were looking for any extra supplies. If they wanted to stay here for the night, they'd at least need something to thrive off of.

Rochelle and Nick were watching over Ellis. They had laid him down on one of the carpets, since there were no couches or beds, and were currently debating what to do. They had taken his shirt off and unwrapped the bandages so they could try stopping the bleeding again, but they couldn't bandage or stitch the wound up until they knew how severe it was and the blood had stopped gushing out. 

"There's not much we can do for him right now, Nick. I think we should get Caspian to come over and check on him. He knew the most about this back in the truck." Rochelle suggested.

"As much as I hate that brat, if it's the chance of getting Ellis better, than fine. Also, come here." Nick took a spare bandage out and held his hand out. Understanding his request, she presented the bite on her arm to the gambler. Nick cleaned the wound and wrapped it up. "Thanks." 

"I'm going to help the others." The reporter said; Nick nodded before returning his gaze to El. 

However, in the darkest corner of the room where the rubble crumbled from the ceiling and fell down occasionally, Caspian sat. He made no efforts to move, either. He stared at the wall opposite him, then at his teammates, then at the walls again; like he was in some sort of trance.

He wanted to help them, he really did, but he didn't know how. They didn't trust him, he could sense it. No matter how they would reassure and promise him that they did, he could see through their lies.

'Promises are just beautiful lies.' The thought drifted through his head.

He drew his knees up to his chest and embraced them before burying his head in his knees. He scuffed the dust up with his foot idly, looking for something to distract him before his thoughts wandered too deeply into the abyss that was his mind.

"Why don't they trust me? I mean; Coach is nice, so is Ellis, Francis and Louis don't really care, Rochelle and Zoey are kinda nice, but Nick's just a bastard..." He whispered to himself. He had a habit of making small, secret, snide comments to himself about his former teammates; about how they treated him and how they acted towards him.

He glanced to Nick. His eyes travelled down that suited body, and he scowled; an expression that didn't belong on his face, he ground his teeth together angrily as he thought back to the events earlier, how he'd blamed them for Rochelles' bite and making them walk through the horde although it was the only choice they had left.

Until those emerald eyes stared back.

He froze, shocked, embarrassed he'd been caught staring at the man. But it was too late. The suited man was already making his way over to him, fists clenched at his sides and jaded irises narrowed dangerously.

"Kid, are you just gonna sit on your ass all day doing jack shit or are you going to come and help us?" Nick scolded the boy.

"Why should I help you guys? You all don't trust me." Caspian countered. The gambler scoffed.

"We're not the ones who spent their time with cannibals are we, hm?"

"I didn't know they were cannibals!" The teenager exclaimed.

"And I didn't know you'd be dumb enough to trust them anyway. Christ, get your fucking head in the game, kid, we're not gonna wait around listening to your sob stories. Now get your ass over here. I need your help for a second." Caspian did as he was told and wandered to where Nick was sitting next to Ellis. 

"Since Rochelle said you know the best about this shit, how do we stop the bleeding?" The gambler asked. 

"Surgery." Was the simple answer as Caspian pulled the kit to him and took out a needle and a thread.

"...What kind of 'surgery'?" 

"We need to stitch him up inside." Nick's eyes bulged out his skull. "If we can tie the vessel with a stitch we can stop the bleeding. But he'll always have to have it bandaged unless we can find a doctor in the apocalypse. Which is highly unlikely." 

"How the fuck are we gonna do that?" Nick asked, bewildered. 

Caspian sighed. "I can do it, but you're gonna have to keep the wound open for me. We're lucky he's asleep now, but as soon as the needle goes in, he'll wake up screaming bloody murder. 

"Damnit...Alright, fine." Caspian threaded the needle and ordered Nick to slowly pry the wound as far as it could go. This alone made Ellis stir and groan.

Caspian readied the needle before slowly entering the wound with it. As soon as the needle made contact with the vessel, Ellis bolted up into an upright position, screaming in pain. 

"OW, WHAT THE HELL?" He yelled.

"Ellis, we need to—"

"Nick, Caspian! What are you doing?!" Rochelle shouted, running over to them at once. The others followed.

"This is the only way to stop the bleeding, Rochelle! Someone hold him down, now, we need to do this quickly!" Caspian ordered. Coach, being the strongest, pushed on the kid's shoulders until he was down on the floor before pinning his arms down. 

"Do it now." The big man commanded. 

Caspian then went in with the needle again which caused unbearable pain for the mechanic. As careful as he could, he slowly made his first stitch where the gaping hole in the vessel was. Ellis' screams started getting louder, up to the point that Rochelle had to cover his mouth with her hand. 

He made the second stitch, getting the needle covered in blood, but luckily he could see the blood slowly coming to a halt inside the mechanic's torso. A couple more stitches would hopefully stop it. 

Somewhere through the agonising pain, Ellis had passed out again, making it easier for Caspian to make the final stitches without the boy writhing around everywhere. 

When he was done, he let Nick clean the wound of any remaining blood and bandage it up again. When they were finished, all that was left was the mechanic's heavy, short breathing. 

They really had to check one thing though. 

Nick stroked the unconscious man's cheek with his thumb. "Ellis?" He asked.

It took a couple of seconds, but slowly and surely, the mechanic began to open his eyes little by little. 

"Please tell me tha' it's over now—" Ellis stopped himself mid-sentence when he saw the state of Caspian's and Nick's hands. They were drenched in blood; _his_ blood. 

They followed his movements and looked down too. "Don't worry El, it's over. We won't have to do it again." The gambler reassured him. He turned to Caspian who was getting up and walking off.

"All shit aside, thanks kid." Nick spoke to him as he was walking away nonetheless. 

Maybe Nick wasn't as bad as he thought he was.

Louis and Zoey then entered the room, frowns dawning upon their faces. They sighed and at that very moment they all knew there was no good news to come.

"There's nothing; absolutely nothing. There's no food, no weapons, no supplies, nothing!" Zoey exaggerated, the panic slowly making its' way into her voice.

"Yeah, we didn't find anything, and we searched under every cupboard, wardrobe; you name it. There's nothing there, we can't stay here." Louis muttered.

"Y'all we can't go back out there, and even if there is nothin', we gotta stay put for a while." Coach instructed plonking down on a sofa across the room.

"But Coach, we need supplies now. If we don't there'll be no way we can even move in the morning because we'll have nothing to defend ourselves with!" Rochelle stated, making the former football player think for a moment.

"Rochelles' right," Francis agreed, "There's probably one of those sons'a bitches out there right now just waiting to fucking kill us."

"A couple of deadly wounds on one of us could mean we won't make it." Caspian joined them finally.

"So what the hell are we gonna do then?" Nick shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I could go look for something, guys?" Rochelle offered, as usual, doing everything she could to help anyone out. 

"Ro, you and the lad need to rest up. We can't have y'all goin' out there and gettin' even more hurt." Coach spoke out. 

"But we can't just stay here without supplies, y'all. We ain't gonna last long without anythin' but a gun." The mechanic pointed out.

"Maybe someone else could go then?" Zoey voiced her curiosities, scanning everyone.

"In the morning, I can go." Caspian said then.

"Alright, Nick can you go with the boy?" Coach questioned and Nicks' eyes bulged out of his skull.

"What?! No fucking way. He's a brat, I'm not putting up with him." Caspian seemed to shrink down from the icy words.

"Nick needs to stay with Ellis right now, Coach." Rochelle tried to reason with Coach, but he denied her.

"We can watch Ellis, just go with him, Nick." 

"I'm not going on a supply run with a stubborn, stuck up teenager. Why can't someone else go with the damn kid?" He grumbled.

"I doubt you would've been any different as a teenager, suit. You act just how you described the kid." Francis laughed which stopped when Nick started to pull the gun from his holster.

"Shut up, greasy pig—"

"Boys!" Zoey cut in, "Nick, just go with Caspian, I think he's—"

"Alright, for fuck sake. I'll go with the damn kid, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."

"Well, it's settled then. We should get some sleep, guys, it's getting late." Louis suggested, finding a place on a tattered rag on the floor to sleep on.

Zoey looked around for something to lay on but she couldn't find anything. Blushing furiously, she stared at Louis for a long while before shuffling her feet over to him.

"H-hey, Louis...?"

"What's up, Zoey?" He smiled. She gave a weak one back.

"There's uh, nothing else to sleep on...So I was wondering—"

"Sure." He scooted over onto the edge of the rag and patted the space next to him.

"W-what? You mean it?" She nearly squealed, and quickly lowered herself onto the rag with Louis. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was better than sleeping on the cold, hard floor.

She sighed as her eyes fluttered shut, and she didn't mind when she felt Louis' arms curl around her waist and hold her close.

"Well, I guess those two aren't keeping watch, neither is Ellis. Who's watch is it, anyways?" Rochelle asked, glancing at Francis from the corner of her eye.

"Can you take the watch, baby girl? We don' want anythin' breakin' in 'ere while we're sleepin'." Coach nodded towards Rochelle who sighed, but agreed nonetheless.

Nick stayed near Ellis the entire night, and hardly slept one bit. 

"Nick, you should sleep. I promise you El will be fine." She tried to reassure him, glancing at the gambler from the dark.

"We said that last time, and now look, we had to fucking cause him all this damn pain." He sighed.

"Nick we had to do that. It was that or let Ellis bleed out. And I think you'd rather not have the latter. He'll be up again tomorrow."

Rochelle's words did nothing to ease his uneasiness, but he eventually fell into a not-so peaceful rest. 

* * *

 

The next morning, Nick and Caspian were set for their supply trip. They didn't have anything to carry supplies with however, like a bag or something, but they'd have to grab as much as they could for the sake of their team. 

"Alrigh' young'uns, try and get back before night, ya hear? We can't stay here for longer than a day, I would guess. If ya run into trouble, haul ass back here." Coach instructed before handing the gun to Nick.

"Why don't I ever get the gun?!" Caspian furrowed his eyebrows. 

"Because I know how to use it, dumbass." Nick replied, scowling. 

"Y'all be careful." Ellis sighed, feeling fine enough to be on his feet again, glancing at Nick when he said it. 

_You too, Ace._

"Yeah, we'd hate to see one of you guys go so soon." Louis' words did nothing to ease the uncertainty if the two should go or not. But they needed the items for their survival. 

Coach then unbarricaded the make-shift door blockade so Nick and Caspian could get past. Once it was out of the way, they walked outside. 

'Grey' would be the word to describe the world around them. Dark, overcast clouds hung above them mockingly, the sun hidden behind the murky sky. There would definitely be a storm soon.

"Be back soon!" Rochelle called out to them before the door was barricaded once again. 

"So, where should we head first?" Caspian asked, sticking close to the suited man.

"The houses, maybe? Duh." They headed towards a building that could hardly be classed as a house. It was a fucking shack. Dirty and made out of decaying, old, mossy bricks and a wooden plank just thrown over the gap to act as a 'door'. It was probably filthy inside as well.

"Well, what are you waiting for? I'm not going first." Nick spoke. Caspian took a deep breath before entering the shack. He heard no sounds of infected inside, so he took another step. His hands searched the wall, looking for a light switch. He found a barely attached rope dangling from the ceiling and pulled on it which made the cracked, dim light bulb above them switch on. Moths fidgeted around it.

"Clear." He motioned for Nick to follow him inside. The gambler did so, and together they started rummaging through the various shelves on the walls. Nick managed to find a pipebomb while Caspian didn't have any luck. 

Well it was a start, a pipebomb and a pistol. This was gonna be harder than they thought. 

"Why do you hate me?" Caspian asked out of the blue and Nick turned to him annoyed.

"I hate kids, and people who can't look after themselves." He replied simply. Caspian raised a brow.

"Why don't you hate Ellis then?" Nick pondered for a moment.

"I did at first. Ellis is a naïve, occasionally—and by 'occasionally' I mean most of the time—annoying redneck and he's a kid, true, but he's _my_  naïve, annoying redneck. Plus, El _can_ take care of himself, you _can't_." 

"I can take care of myself! But seriously, why do you hate me this much?" He looked like a damn kicked puppy.

"Christ, what is this, an interrogation? Get your nose out of my fucking business, kid." 

"Geez, I was just asking. I just noticed that a lot of people in your group have eyes for each other, that's all." 

Nick didn't respond as they walked out of the shack, he reluctantly tossed the pipebomb to Caspian who caught it straight away, baseball practise seemed to pay off even in the apocalypse.

They didn't see much other buildings around the base they'd barricaded, but they did see quite a vast building in the distance.  Fuck, they either stayed near the others or they ran out there and tried to scavenge whatever they could find. 

It was a risk that they had to take. 

A few droplets of rain fell slowly from the dark clouds above them. They quickened their walking pace before breaking into a full-blown sprint at the building as the rain cascaded down upon them rapidly. Lightning crashed next to them with a defening bang and a sickening crack. 

And Caspian chose _this_  time to trip over a cracked, large piece of concrete. 

He hit the ground and scuffed up the knees of his trousers and his ankle was thrown into an awkward position from the sudden fall. He cursed aloud as he struggled to stand up again.

Nick, having been in front of the boy, hadn't noticed when he had fell, but when he had heard the loud curse, he'd reluctantly turned around to see the kid down on the ground. He was so close to the building, and if he had kept going, he would've made it and Caspians' fate would've been sealed by the infected coming up behind him. 

He aimed the barrel of his handgun at the infected and shot them all in the head before they could reach Caspian. He then sent his legs towards the baseball coachs' way and hauled him up by the wrist before running again. 

The lightning crashed next to them and the rain beat down on them quickly, it seemed as the more they ran, the more the weather tried to stop them. But they wouldn't stop until they were inside. 

The infected however, wouldn't stop either. There was now a good portion of zombies sprinting behind Caspian, teeth chomping; the rain not slowing them down or stopping their hunger. 

"THROW THE PIPEBOMB, NOW!" Nick demanded as he ran. Caspian obeyed as quick as he could, pressing the button on the pipebomb before tossing it behind him. The infected immediately charged for the source of the noise, not paying attention to the two fleeing survivors anymore. They surrounded the device as the beeps got louder before it exploded, as well as all the infected around it.

They finally reached the building and scrambled inside before locking it shut. 

"That, was way too fucking close..." The gambler panted, and the teenager agreed, for once the two not arguing. Outside, the weather started to die down. Ironic.

"We should look around and see if we can find anything before heading back. We can't stay for too long." Caspian then walked upstairs and tried to find anything. 

Nick stayed downstairs and searched the rooms. He walked into the living room and rummaged through some of the cabinets. He managed to find a bottle of pills and read the label. Tramadol, a pain reliever, thank God. 

Scratching against the carpet sounded behind him. 

He instantly turned to see a Hunter crouched on all fours, staring at him. He was royally fucked. His handgun was in the holster while he held the pills with one hand. As soon as he made one tiny move, the Hunter would pounce and make him todays' snack. 

He had two choices, he could wait it out and see if it left him alone, or he could risk pulling his handgun out. If he managed to retrieve his handgun and shoot the Hunter before it pounced him, he'd be fine. But if he missed one bullet, it'd be lights out. 

He breathed in deeply before letting it out slowly, and reached for his handgun—

"Hey, Nick, I found—AH!" Caspian screamed as the Hunter pounced him as soon as he entered the room. It managed to get a clean scratch across his abdomen before Nick kicked it off and his aim stayed true as he ended the Hunters' life with a bullet to the skull.

He scowled as he offered his hand out to the kid. He took it gratefully and Nick hauled him to his feet.

"Thanks." He looked down at the scratch.

"Whatever. What did you find?" 

"Am I gonna turn?" He questioned suddenly. 

"What? No, of course not, don't be stupid. It's a scratch, not a bite, Christ. Now, what did you find?" 

"Oh, okay...Well, I found two kits and a knife upstairs in the bedroom. I haven't checked the kitchen yet, but hopefully we can find some food." He picked up the items he'd dropped when he was pounced up off of the floor and turned to the gambler who was already making his way out of the room. 

Nick entered the kitchen with the teenager following close behind. He aimed his gun around the room as he scanned it before lowering it when he saw no threats. They rummaged through the drawers and cabinets as well as the fridge and cupboards. 

Caspian grinned as he checked over some of the tins of food, they would be fine to eat for a while. He collected them all and held them in his hands. 

Nick looked in a cupboard and found a bottle of water. There wasn't much left, but may as well take it, he supposed. 

The rest of the kitchen was empty, unfortunately. Caspian sighed as he looked at all the supplies they'd found.

"How are we gonna carry all this?" He eyed up the equipment. 

Nick reached into one of the cupboards and pulled out a shopping bag from it. He then threw it to Caspian and it ended up hitting him in the face before dropping to the floor. He scowled and Nick smirked as he watched him bag the items.

"You're carrying it, I'm making sure we don't get killed." He spoke before leaving the kitchen and making his way out of the building.

The rain had stopped for now and the lightning wasn't as loud or as dangerous as before. They walked at a relatively quick pace and eventually their make shift safe house came into view. Their eyes widened as they saw what was happening.

They looked on, horrified, as they watched the Tank plummet itself through the bases' barricades before charging inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, Nick and Caspian bonding time ftw. 
> 
> So, these two hate each other, but they'll work together anyway.
> 
> I'm so sorry that I didn't update in a while, you know, kinda busy irl and shit but got a two week break now ^^ so more updates will be coming. I might write Chapter 16 tonight maybe, i don't know.
> 
> Will the others survive the Tank attack? Or will their group of eight become a group of two? 
> 
> Muahaha, you'll have to wait to find out ;) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed <3 and thank you so much for your continued support :3
> 
> (On another note, I'm also having trouble trying to respond to comments. If you get a late reply, I do apologise but I do read them all even if I don't reply as quickly! I'm sorry about this D:)


	16. I need you

Nick thought he was going to have a literal and metaphorical heart attack as he watched the muscular, vast beast break its' way inside their...home? Yeah, home, probably the only one they'd have for a while. The thought didn't make him feel any better.

Caspian was frozen, he was shaking so badly. His limbs shook with the fear while his mind slowly shut down at the realisation that the chances of his teammates surviving were slim; and hell, he wasn't gonna spend the rest of his days in zombie-land with Mr. Suited bastard.

So, Nick did, probably, the most insane thing he'd ever done in his life. Next to driving out of that mall window, of course.

He fired at the Tank.

And that was all it took to send the Tank reeling back out the destroyed door again, pausing on its' destruction on the rest of their base, and maybe their teammates.

They weren't losing them this easily.

"SHIT, YOU PISSED IT OFF!" Caspian bellowed, already back-pedalling away from the roaring Tank that was galloping towards them.

Nick didn't respond, his heart was thumping too loudly in his ears, his blood running cold as he barely dodged a rock being hurled at him. How did he know if the others had even made it out alright? If they'd even managed to defend themselves, somehow? Hating to admit it, he needs these people, he needs them to be okay.

"RUN, JUST RUN!" He yelled at Caspian as they sprinted away from the muscular beast that chased them hungrily. When the Tank stopped to pick up some debris and haul it at them, Nick rounded a building and pulled Cas by his collar with him.

They stayed silent for what seemed like hours as they focussed on the Tanks' heavy, growling, breaths.

It never really did fall completely silent.

Caspians' heart stopped as he spotted the Tanks' fist slowly appear from around the corner. As where they were hiding was so dark, when the Tank finally showed itself, it didn't notice them. But that didn't mean it got terrifyingly close to their sweaty bodies.

With a defeated grunt, the Tank stomped away. They stayed still, not daring to even breathe until the Tank was out of earshot.

Gladly that wasn't too long as Nick was certain he would've managed to suffocate himself.

The gambler and the teenager then walked out from behind the building before Nicolas dashed to their safe house, eager to see their teammates and see if they were okay.

Caspian would've ran too, if it wasn't for the Tank, that had turned around from the sounds of their footsteps, and had decided to grab his ankle and throw him around like he was weightless.

Nick was nearly at the base and—why was there screaming? Who the fuck would be alerting this much attention to themselves—

_You've got to be shitting me._

He turned just to see Caspian get slammed into the hard, concrete floor. His eyes widened. It hauled Caspian up again, tossing him in the air this time before crushing him down again with its' fists. The screaming stopped as he hit the pavement with a crunch.

Nick saw two options here. The kid was probably as good as dead and there was a minuscule chance that maybe, just maybe, he might be able to save the kid. Or, he could run to the safe house, make sure his friends were alright and leave the teenagers' fate to be an agonising death; he could make up a story to the others, instead of saying he just left him.

No matter how many times he was told he didn't have a heart and that he'd never put his life on the line to save another person, his heart was too weak to carry a mans' life on it, he just couldn't leave someone so young to die when they still had a long life ahead of them.

Fuck, Ellis was really having an effect on him, all optimistic and shit. He cursed himself. Thinking about the mechanic only left an aching in his chest.

And that, is why he took off for Caspian, who was still laying in a bloody heap, the red, sticky bodily fluid growing around him slowly.

But what the fuck could he do? One pistol, that's all he damn had. And not enough bullets left, either. He wasn't as strong as a Tank, so he wouldn't be able to fight the damn thing, so what else?

Maybe he could outrun it? Yes, it was risky as hell, but in this cluster fuck he had miraculously got himself into, he needed to hope Lady Luck was on his side.

Hauling the unconscious, bleeding baseball coach up, he slung him over his shoulder and ran. Ran like he'd never ran before, sprinted like he was running for his life, which he in fact was.

The Tank still went for him, screaming, roaring, growling. The beast pounded its' fists as it ran after him, seemingly full of supernatural energy as it was slowly catching up with Nick.

The frantic gambler ran around a corner, entering another block of the streets. Cars and trucks dotted the quiet roads, if the Tank hit him with a Car, he'd be joining Caspian. Fuck, he wasn't letting that thought cross his mind.

He threw himself over cars and slid under a few if he had to, anything to get away from the raging monster behind him. Thankfully, he could hear the breathless Tanks' breath, meaning it was slowly diminishing in speed, getting tired.

 _Okay, just a little further, you can do this._ He told himself, willing his legs to work faster.

He spotted a small, cut off shack a while away and made a beeline towards it. He nearly tripped and fell on one of the infecteds' corpses, but he caught himself at the last second and made it to the shack.

He threw himself into it, laying Cas down before barricading and blocking the door shut with what he could find; boxes, crates, pipes, anything.

Now, it was time to play the sick and twisted waiting game.

He could hear the Tank still snarling outside the shack, waiting for any signs of life to be shown from inside the little safe haven. Nick watched in horror as one of the fists managed to dent a hole in the wall, but other than that, the Tank did nothing but circle the hut.

The mere minutes felt like hours as the Tank inspected them, and after forever, the beast decided to bound away somewhere else; its' loud, terrifying footsteps becoming slower as the gambler listened profoundly.

He sighed in relief and quickly knelt down by the boy he thought he hated and placed two fingers to his neck. Nothing.

He set to work scrounging around the safe house, looking for anything that could be an aid to Caspian, he was mostly looking for a defibrillator.

As he looked, he couldn't help but let his thoughts wander. If the kid was _dead_ , why was he wasting his time? Why would he try and patch up the corpse of a survivor? The coast was clear outside surely, so why was he still here, looking around the makeshift house when he knew he'd find nothing?

He opened the shack door and looked back at the way he had just came. He saw the trail of the Tanks' footprints that he could follow to find the others.

So Nick left the shack, and he never once looked back.

* * *

 

"Ellis, sweetie, you need to keep up." Rochelle coaxed him gently, trying to get a response out of him.

He didn't even look up to meet her eyes, he just stared blankly down at the earthy muck below his feet.

It was from the emptiness he felt inside him weighing him down, the pain of something being ripped away from him, the intense worry he now felt for the man who hated him at first. Since he was so worried about his lover, Ellis hadn't made a peep about anything. 

Feeling strong empathy for the boy, Rochelle fell in step beside him as the others walked in front of them. Francis shot them a look, but no other words or expressions were exchanged.

"Hun, I know you're hurt. But, we don't know for sure if Nick is de—"

"Don' say it, Ro. I don' need ya pity, jus' go on ahead. I'll keep up, like ya said." He finally looked up to meet her eyes, and they were so fucking gone. Once full of life, now broken. His voice was sad and lacked the usual enthusiasm, it was almost as if Nick gave him all those traits, when he really didn't. Now without Nick, the gambler had taken part of the boy with him.

Rochelle gave him a small, forced smile and walked in front of Francis and Zoey who were chatting along, and directly to Coach. The big man smiled at her, but he quickly frowned when he saw her expression.

"What's up, baby girl?" He asked in his fatherly tone.

She jerked her thumb towards Ellis, who was now having a brief discussion with Louis who was obviously trying to make him feel better, she sighed. "He's not doing too well, Coach. I tried to talk to him, but he wants some space. He's hurting so bad that he's distracted from everything around us."

Coach quirked one brow, "Well, why is he so upset? Is it 'cause him an' that other boy we met up with became good friends? I doubt he'd be upset about Nick." The man laughed, which only made Rochelle more hurt.

'You have no idea,' She thought, before the two fell into silence once more.

At the back of the group, Ellis was slowing down once again. After telling Louis to stop badgering him and just let him be, in the nicest way possible of course, the pain hadn't subsided and seemed to come back twice as bad.

He raised his hand to his head and closed his eyes desperately, trying to will the throbbing pain in his head away. He hadn't noticed he'd lagged so far behind that the others were walking back to him.

" _I'm fine._ " He ground out, his teeth scraping against each other and making some sort of growling sound. 

The others left him alone after that, and carried on walking till they found a safehouse. 

* * *

 

_"Keith!" Ellis shouted as he ran to his best friend who had fell off of the truck, the dare the two had agreed to._

_However, the red head just laughed, first a hearty chuckle, and eventually the boy was cackling like a witch._

_"Are you alrigh'? You crazy son'bitch." The younger of the two spoke, and he expected to see Keith laughing again, but the world around him was darkening; and his best friend stood up easily, the wounds disappearing and being replaced with bullet holes._

_"Wha—...? Keith?"_

_"You killed them." Keith chanted, but it wasn't his voice anymore, it was the same cackling, the same growling he heard in every day life nowadays when he fought those freaks._

_Keiths' skin turned to rotting, revolting flesh, his eyes became sunken in, bones stuck out of bullet wounds and blood dripped down his sweaty forehead. It was showing him the image of how Keith would be as a zombie._

_"You killed them." He repeated, almost as if he was repeating it over and over to get him to believe it._

_Ellis tried to speak, tried to open his mouth and deny the accusations, ask who 'them' referred to, but nothing came out of his mouth except blood. It cascaded down his chin like a waterfall, stained his t-shift as other wounds became present on his body as well._

_"Ellis, sweet sweet, Ellis. My dear, what are you doing here?" Another voice, and the mechanic felt his blood freeze ice in his veins._

_Nick._

_He tried to speak, but more blood came dripping out._

_"Oh no, don't speak, sweetheart, I'll take care of you." His lover came into view, he looked deceased, distorted, dead. The gambler held a machete in his right hand._

_And even though Ellis trusted this man, fucking loved him, he backed away. He was on the verge of running if it hadn't have been for the blood still tumbling down him, the wounds miraculously hurting his feelings and emotions more than physical pain itself._

_And then Nick was gone again. He faded into thin air and the world around him started getting light again, and hope was slowly being restored; he allowed himself the breathe again._

_The breathing he knew so well puffed against his neck and prickled his skin, and before he could turn around, Nicks' hand was around his mouth and the machete embedded itself on the side of his neck._

* * *

 

His eyes fluttered open. Everyone around him was asleep, he was leaning against the wall, eyes open, hands entwined around each other. Looking out the window, he realised he was in the safehouse living room, and that it was night outside. 

_What the hell was he just dreaming about?_

It all confused him, of course it did. Why did Nick kill him? Why did Keith say 'he killed them all'? He was so confused. 

Yeah, he had to shoot his friends and family, but at the time, he needed to live. He had to survive, he didn't think his mind would get this active that it would start giving him visions or nightmares. 

And it seemed Nick hadn't returned yet. He cared about Caspian too, but Nick started making the apocalypse bearable for him. It may have only been a day and a bit, but he missed him already. 

Maybe that was why he couldn't sleep. He was so used to talking to Nick before he slept, then sleeping directly by him, comfortable in his warmth and safety. 

He felt alone now, with only his presence. He sat up against the wall and didn't sleep for the rest of the night. 

_Nick, I need you..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, I finally got a new chapter out! 
> 
> Sadly, it's incredibly fucking late as usual. Sorry i'm struggling to get chapters out as fast as i did before.
> 
> Anyhow, it's here! The long wait is over, but lots of questions have been left unanswered. 
> 
> Why was Ellis dreaming about such a scenario? Will he ever be alright again?
> 
> We'll have to wait to find out again ;)
> 
> Also: This chapter originally wasn't supposed to be about them splitting up, it was going to be Ellis saving Nick from the Tank when he was about to die, and they were going to have smexy times. But, sadly, that's on hold for now ;) huehue. 
> 
> I've also added character statuses so i know where to pick up off of when i write a new chapter.
> 
> Ellis: Within group  
> Nick: Lost  
> Coach: Within group  
> Caspian: Lost  
> Louis: Within group  
> Francis: Within group  
> Zoey: Within group  
> Rochelle: Within group
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, and thank you for your continued support as usual <3
> 
> EDIT: 25/08/17 THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITTED AND NOW I LIKE IT MORE LOL


	17. The Way Back

Dragging his feet along ungracefully, Nick rounded yet another street and further towards the direction of where he had just ran from; the scene where the Tank attacked.

It was easy, all he had to do was go right, then take another left, them go down an alley—and for the love of fucking God he knew he'd gone in yet another circle for the second time in five minutes.

He was seriously reconsidering going back to the shack and waiting the whole fucking apocalypse out, but he was forever haunted by the image of Caspian, the blood trickling and sliding across his bare hands and fingertips. The teenagers glassy, lifeless eyes would be forever bored into Nicks' memory.

For all he knew, he didn't know if that kid was immune anyway. Even if he did decide to head back, who knows what he'd find? Maybe Caspian would turn and make him a good snack, or even worse, become a special infected and gave him a slow and agonising death.

Nick had never felt more alone in his life.

He silently wondered if this was all just a messed and twisted prank played by so called 'God' in the sky, but what God would allow a fucking zombie apocalypse to happen?

Maybe it was a test; a test to bring out the best in himself as well as the worst, to show him how much he really needed the people around him, show him how much he cared.

And most of the time, it seemed like he really didn't care at all; but he cared more than he let on.

Take the relationship he'd started with the mechanic for example, as well as bringing a horrible heartache when they'd separated, their relationship was built off of friendly jokes, quick snide comments, the occasional argument that left one of them too pissy, and most importantly, protection.

Now that he was thinking about it, Ellis had had his back during a horde, even in the goddamn safehouse when an argument had broken out between Nick versus Rochelle and Coach; the kid had stuck up for him and told everyone to calm down and sleep on it.

He'd always healed Nick first, always given him pills even when the gambler knew the mechanic needed them more, always gave him that reassuring smile, no matter how mad Nick might've made him.

Nick had only done the same recently. But now, he swore that if he made it out alive and was reunited with his lover again, he would be better for him.

The thoughts that had crossed through his head had made him so dazed and distracted that he hadn't noticed the infected approaching him at a sturdy pace. Thus he ended flat on his back with his hips all but being straddled as the infected crawled up his body and tried to sink its' sharp teeth into his collarbone.

Even though his gun had clattered and scattered somewhere when the infected had attacked, he'd luckily been able to bring his arms up to defend himself and planted both his strong hands on his attackers' shoulders and began to push him off.

Nick was by no means a weak man, he could hold his own in a fight very easily, but the infected atop him was a heavy weight and had an iron grip as well, it's relentless flaying around only making it harder to get the freak off of him.

Realising that pushing was not going to get the zombie off of him, he tried for a new tactic and shifted the weight on his hips to one side, shoving the zombie off his lower body.

It rolled away for a few seconds and stood up groggily as it charged for Nick again, but the gambler was hot on his heals and had managed to crawl to his weapon and aim it at the freak.

He pulled the trigger, and froze when the only sound he got was the deafening 'click' from the barrel.

He'd used his very last bullet on the Tank, hadn't he?

Stupid fucking...

He opted for a different approach and threw the gun at the infecteds' head, sending it down again with a thud. They were indeed quite stupid and easy creatures to take out, but without a weapon, they could just make you meet your demise.

It was as if the roles had switched; Nick now straddled the infecteds' legs and wrapped both his hands around the others' neck and squeezed hard until his veins bulged out his skin and the messy blood coughed up from the zombies' throat.

It took quite a fight, but in the end the gambler was victorious. He hadn't managed to completely kill the zombie per se, but he'd managed to knock it unconscious, giving him enough time to escape the current predicament he was in.

Scurrying to his feet and dusting himself off momentarily, he picked up the gun in case he found any ammo for it on the way and began to walk in the direction he thought he'd find his teammates at.

Christ, why was he even bothering? The likability of him running into them was low, the likability of him even seeing them again was low, his chances of survival were now fucking low.

He has to keep looking if he wants to live, if he wants to see the people he cares about again.

He sighed and took a shortcut, walking across a darkened pathway. It was good to move in shadowed areas, he'd be harder to found by infected and it wouldn't be identifiable where the noise was coming from if he made any.

And then something sharp poked at the front of his shoe, and he stopped.

It didn't hurt, not at all with leather that had been burnt to shit by goo, and probably withered by other things that Nick did not want to think about, but it surprised him slightly, and wanted to check it wasn't the nails of a zombies' fingertips.

It was a finely sculptured, curved, thin piece of sharp glass. He picked it up and examined it in his hand; he was surprised when it was pointy enough to draw blood slowly from his skin.

He decided to pocket the glass, he needed a new weapon to defend himself after all, and this might be the best he could get right now. As he stood back up again, he continued walking down the path.

When he reached the end of the shortcut however, Nick was sure he would've preferred a guy aiming a gun at at his face rather than this.

A horde; more specifically, like the one they had all encountered before.

Like last time, there was no way under it, above it, any other ways around it. Only through it.

Nick wanted to live, that's why he remembered what Caspian had told him. But he was still cautious about even trying to cross the horde. Not after what horrific events had happened last time.

Everything started flashing before his eyes; Rochelles' bite, Zoeys' screaming, Ellis' blood.

It was all too much, but what other fucking choice did he have right now?

So Nick swallowed his pride right there and then, and stabbed a zombie straying from the horde with the glass shard before sneakily dragging it behind a nearby tree.

He stabbed the infected in the head to make sure it was dead before he slit a line down the infected's abdomen and pried it open cautiously.

He immediately gagged at the smell that the guts inside the zombie produced. It smelled rotten and downright disgusting and he could feel himself growing even more nauseous as the seconds ticked by.

"Jesus fucking christ, I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered to himself as he took a handful of the zombies' intestines and began to smear them all over his once white suit.

A couple of months ago, Nick doubted he'd let anything happen to his pristine, white suit. But now, in the apocalypse, his suit had been licked, vomited on, clawed to shit and spat on, so he knew he should've cared, but he didn't give a shit about it anymore.

He solemnly swore to himself that if he made it out alive, he was going to go on some girly shopping spree in the biggest shopping centre ever for a new suit.

He missed cleanliness so much.

Once he was sure he had covered himself in the foul smell of flesh and the guts itself, he rose to his feet and brought out his shard just incase before walking into the horde.

The sky overhead was beginning to darken and Nick cursed to himself. There was no way he'd be able to get through the horde and try and get back to the others in time. Or at all.

He had to worry about what he was doing now more though. One wrong move could end it all, he'd worry about the others later. They were probably safe; he wasn't.

He slowly wandered through the horde, looking for an exit, a gap between the freaks to show him a way out. He had to stop when an infected would look and examine him, even when one brushed up against him he had to stop from the shivers and fear clawing its way down his spine, like the way zombie's would claw at flesh.

That's when he spotted it, the red safe house door not a while from the horde he was currently in, but he could just make out the edges of the house through all the zombie's in front of him.

The infected were beginning to pick up his natural scent, beginning to realise he wasn't one of them and were slowly turning towards him and getting closer.

Nick had to hurry up and get there, he wasn't fooling the zombie's easily. He couldn't walk slowly like they could, the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the frightened look in his eyes proved that he wanted to haul ass out of the current predicament he was in.

But he couldn't run like he had before, he had to stay calm, had to trick the infected. He gradually quickened his pace as he made a beeline towards the sight of the red door. He even pushed a few zombies over as he got to the end of the horde, desperate to be safe for a while.

When he finally made it out of the horde, he ran straight for the safe house, not caring if the horde behind him had turned and started following him there. The distance shrill cry of a Hunter made sure he wasn't turning around to check.

He threw himself inside the house, quickly locking and barricading the door behind him with anything he could find. He then scouted the house, calling for his teammates in every room he could.

There wasn't an answer, only the sound of the wind tapping at the windows.

Sighing, Nick sank to his knees in the middle of the room.

He'd made it, he was fucking alive. He may not have found the others yet, but knowing that he was alive was just as good news as any.

He sat like that for hours.

* * *

 

"We have to move now, Nick and Cas ain't comin' back. Y'all, if we don't go now, we're jus' puttin' ourselves in even more danger." Coach spoke to them.

"Coach, we don't know that. For all we know, Nick could come back tomorrow maybe and need help! Caspian too, they can't make it on their own." Louis argued.

"Louis is right, Coach, we can't leave them to die." Rochelle agreed. Coach gave them a stern look.

"We're not leavin' 'em, but they got into this mess!"

"To be fair man, you did send them on the supply run." Francis shrugged which made the big man give him a pissy look.

"I think Coach is right...We should move." Zoey started.

"Excuse me? Honey, we're not moving. Nick may not have been your teammate, but he was mine. You don't have to care Coach, I'm not leaving without him, I know Ellis wouldn't either." Rochelle crossed her arms over her chest, it was rare when she got angry, but to know that someone she trusted and someone she'd just met was throwing her friend under the bus, she was quickly mad.

"You'll just get us all killed with us sitting ducks in here!" Zoey snarled at Ro, the two girls getting defensive quickly.

"Sorry I'm not some arrogant bitch who doesn't care who dies as long as she gets out alive!"

"I do care! I'm saying we should go before we all die!"

"Fuck you, Zoey. If you have so much faith in us being better outside the safehouse with less teammates than before, be my fucking guest sweetie—" Louis and Francis got between the girls before the argument escalated into something more.

"Calm down. We can discuss this later." Louis reasoned. The two let it go, but not before they shot glares at one another.

"We're not leaving." Ellis spoke the first few words he had since Nick and Caspian had split up with them.

"El, you—" Ro was cut off by the mechanic.

"We can't leave without 'em, it's not righ'..." He looked at the ground solemnly.

"Boy, the likelihood of them bein' alive is close to zero, why should we sit on our asses waitin' around for 'em when we can get to the rescue quicker?" Coach looked at the mechanic.

"Because we don't leave teammates behind! C'mon, Coach, I figured you'd know that much. Jus' 'cause you don' care about leavin' everyone to die doesn' mean the rest of us don't. Ya don't get to make all the fuckin' decisions around 'ere, even if ya think ya do." He narrowed his eyes at Coach, and the football coach was surprised.

First Rochelle had snapped, now their kind, optimistic mechanic had? Coach glared at him before storming over to him. This wasn't going to go down well.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, boy?"

"Ya know damn well righ' wha' I'm tryna say! Ever since this damn apocalypse happened, you think that you can tell the rest of us what ta do, and say it's to get all of us out alive, but it's just to keep you alive ain't it? Y'all don' give a raccoon's ass 'bout the rest of us, tha's why yer so fuckin' eager to leave Nick and Cas behind!"

Coach was fuming, but the mechanic wasn't even done yet, he was just getting started.

"So go ahead, Coach! Run off like the fuckin' coward ya are, 'cause I ain't leavin' people I trust and who are good people."

And then Coach raised his fist to the boy, and that was when all hell was loose.

He punched Ellis across his cheek, near enough his eye, so hard that it made the mechanic double over slightly, and he looked at Coach, bewildered. Everyone in the background gasped and looked horrified.

"Coach! No! Stop, right now!" Rochelle roared, getting closer to the two fighting males. 

"Holy shit." Francis commented, Louis’ eyes widened. 

The others yelled out, but they were all drowned out in both of their minds.

Even Coach looked a bit unsure that what he had done had just happened. Guilt was creeping across his face.

The tension was thick in the air, and for a moment neither of them did anything. Thoughts clashed in everyone’s head if anything more would happen, and as minutes passed, they thought it wouldn't.

Until Ellis landed a solid punch across Coachs' lip that split it on impact. The big man was surprised, and stood there like ice. The ex-teacher wasn't going to hit his teammate again.

The look in Ellis' eyes however, showed that he wouldn't mind beating the shit out of Coach right there and then.

But he didn't do that, he turned around and walked out the room. He turned back once more to add "I'm still not leavin'." before he travelled back into the room he was in before, feeling more dazed than usual.

As he shut the door, he could hear the shouting and yelling from down the hallway, he could hear all their voices too, showing that they were all equally pissed.

He sat on the bed and looked into the mirror on the wall. It was partly cracked and grimy, but he could make out his face in it. He saw that he had a small cut under the eye Coach had hit him as well as a noticeable black and purple eye, it was puffy and hurt to touch.

He sighed and looked away, disappointed with himself for hitting Coach afterwards. He knew the man probably didn't mean it, and that maybe he had gone overboard with stating his opinion, but he'd been so blind with rage at the heat of the moment, he didn't know what to think.

Laying down on the bed and shuffling on his side so he was looking out the safehouse window, he closed his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can i get a medal? I got another chapter out :D
> 
> Sorry nothing much happens, but it will be relevant in the future i promise. Also Nick is a badass in this lol <3
> 
> Everyone makes Coach and Ellis get along, but what would happen if they didn't? Questions questions tsk tsk
> 
> Hope you enjoy and i'll try and get another chapter out by next week, thank you for your continued support :3
> 
> EDIT: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN UPDATED 25/08/17


	18. Tension

Tense would be the word to describe their group at the moment. They were crumbling down like a pebble on a mountain.  Everyone seemed to be on edge since the previous night; they kept to themselves, had one word conversations or simply didn't talk to each other at all.

Thinking more about it, they had changed a lot since Nick and Caspian had disappeared a couple of days ago. Two teammates down, they'd have to fight twice as hard and try twice as hard to get along with each other, even if Nick had started most of the fights before. It was weird how arguments still existed even when he wasn't around.

Rochelle sighed heavily as she lowered herself onto the battered, discoloured couch perched in the corner of the tattered, old living room in the safe house they were currently taking refuge in. Normally, she was good at getting people to focus and remain on the task at hand like how she was when it was just her, Nick, Ellis and Coach, but now, she was dumbstruck on what she was supposed to do to mend the conflicts between them all.

She thought she would start with Zoey. Being real with herself, Rochelle had said a few uncalled for things when arguing with Zoey the other day, and she did feel guilty about it. They're the two girls in the group, they'd supposed to be able to sympathise with how the other felt, or they could chat about girly things and not give a shit what the boys thought. She could hear Zoey rummaging around in the kitchen, presumable looking for something and decided to go and see if she needed any help.

With anxiety burning in the pits of her stomach, she stood and trudged to the kitchen door. She gave a few gentle knocks before a brief mutter of 'Come in,' sounded from the other side of the wooden door. The reporter let herself into the kitchen, slowly shutting the door behind her.

"Hey, Zoey. What are you looking for?" She asked, watching the teenager scour the kitchen from top to bottom.

"Food. We might be running out." It was a short answer, of course it'd be. But at least she was talking to her.

"Do you need any help by any chance? I don't want us to end another night with yet another heavy heart." Rochelle didn't get a response, but Zoey turned and looked at her, the clear guilt gleaming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. I'm just...getting used to being with people I'm not usually accustomed to being around. Before it was just me, Francis, Louis and Bil-" Zoey suddenly stopped herself. One hand covered her mouth as tears began to fall down her rosy cheeks. "Oh god..."

"Oh Zoey, I'm sorry..." Rochelle approached her and carefully pulled her crying teammate into a hug. Zoey lowered her head as she cried her heart out into Rochelle's shoulder, occasionally mumbling Bill's name into the dead, silent air as the reporter held her as she poured her anguish out.

The hug lasted longer than a normal hug would. But both didn't care, Rochelle wanted to make sure Zoey knew she was here for her if she needed her, like a sister almost. When Zoey pulled away, her eyes were distant and sad, but there was something else in them. A glow of happiness. Even with her eyes cast downwards at the dirtied floor, she mumbled out a simple sentence.

"I just can't watch another person die." 

"We're all here for you Zoey. Now, let's get to finding us some food. I think we all know how Coach gets without food." The reporter whispered the last part with a half-smile, and it got a hearty laugh out of Zoey. Together, the two girls began to sort cupboards and look anywhere around the house for some tinned food.

* * *

Upstairs, Louis was in Coach's room trying to get some sense into his head. As it stood, things weren't going as well as Louis hoped they would.

"All I'm saying Coach, is that you and Ellis both overreacted yesterday! And things aren't going to get better for all of us if you put the group first instead and go and apologise." Louis leaned against the bedroom wall with both his arms crossed in a disappointed manner.

Across the room, Coach sat on the corner of his bed crossing and uncrossing his gloved hands idly as he thought of what he wanted to say. His lip was still busted up something fierce ("Kid's got one helluva punch.") and he still looked as mad as he did yesterday

"Hell, young'un I already tried! I'm lucky he didn't throw a damn chair at my head. I get that he misses Nick righ' now, but he can't let his pain get in the way of our survival." It was hard to argue against what Coach had said. Surprisingly, Louis didn't know Nick meant that much to Ellis. But that wasn't the point he was going to dwell on right about now.

"I get what you're saying, but Coach, our whole team is falling apart. We need to try and fix it before everyone loses the will to stick together with each other. I get it, it's the damn Zombie Apocalypse and things aren't looking too good, but we need each other to keep this team strong. So please, Coach, just...Go easy on Ellis and the rest of us, okay?"

"I want to fix things boy, believe me I do, but I don't know how. This ain't as bad as it was on my football team, breaking up kid fights was easy. But the lad won't forgive me." Coach replied solemnly. 

"Hell, that's not true, Coach! From the first couple of days I've known Ellis, he is a kind person who wouldn't hold a grudge at someone ever. You guys are from the same area, damnit! He can probably relate to you the most, share memories and what not. You just need to make it work." With those final words hanging loosely in the air, Louis left the room, leaving Coach to think about what he had said.

As he exited the bedroom, he caught sight of Francis heading downstairs. He opened his mouth to speak but Francis beat him to it.

"Lady drama, am I right?" He smirked.

"Between Zoey and Rochelle, not anymore I hope. Ellis and Coach? I'd say more violent."

Francis rolled his eyes. "You're wasting your time you know, we may as well just sit back and let them get to it. Shit, that'd be great to watch."

"Yeah, because you enjoy that type of thing Francis, I'm trying to get the team back together. We can live through this if we do!" He beamed optimistically.

"Louis, if you don't stop thinking positive, I will feed you to the next Tank I see." The threat lacked it's usual harsh bite, and Louis found himself laughing at it.

"Thinking positive? You got me where I am Francis!" He smiled and pushed Francis out of the way so he could get downstairs quicker.

"Eager to get downstairs to see Zoey?" Francis called after him with a teasing smirk on his face as he watched Louis stop dead in his tracks on the last step.

"What?!" His face flushed red; he looked like a neon tomato.

"What are you so surprised at? I think we all saw you and Zoey cuddlin' in the other safehouse. Didn't know you had a thing for her." He laughed.

"No! We weren't cuddling at all! She was cold!" He snapped back defensively which caused Francis to laugh even harder. "And hey, you can't tease me about Zoey! You have Rochelle!"

"Yeah. But the difference is: me and Rochelle are actually in a relationship." He winked and followed Louis down the stairs and into the kitchen where they heard the other girls.

"You better not say a word to them!" Louis whispered, his face still bright red.

"Not say a word about what?" The two girls appeared at the doorway, gloating smile's on their faces, a couple of tins of soup in their hands. They looked at each other from the side as their smiles got bigger as they caught on to what they were talking about.

They stood in awkward silence for what seemed hours.

"Um...Anyway, did you guys find anything?"

"Yeah, got a couple of tins of soup and some bottles of water, the taps are broke though. And, we found something you guys might like." Zoey held up a bottle of alcohol triumphantly. Francis grinned and immediately made a swipe for the bottle but Zoey held it out of his reach.

"Not so fast, Francis," Rochelle smiled, "We're gonna have it at dinner, we'll all share it together. We could all use a drink right about now."

"Babe, why do you have to be so cruel." Francis moped.

Rochelle laughed and set to work laying and setting up the wooden dining table while Zoey and Louis chatted and Francis tried to get his hands on the alcohol. Rochelle slapped his hands away every time. The reporter smiled, their group was beginning to be better again. Maybe better than they were before. But there was still one problem...

She laid the pans of soup on the stove and spoke to Zoey, "I need to go speak with Ellis. I'll be back in a minute."

Zoey nodded and Rochelle started up the stairs.

* * *

 

As she approached the room Ellis was currently taking as his own, she nearly collided with a body as she turned the corner to the doorway. 

It was Coach. 

"...Coach. How's your lip?" She spoke to him, her eyes glancing upon the cut on his lower lip. 

"It's alrigh' now, baby girl. What isn't alrigh' is how me and the young'un have been acting. We need to work as a team, not as enemies." 

"You're completely right. I'm sorry about yesterday Coach...But I just need to make sure Ellis is okay." 

"Completely understandable, girl. We'll talk later, yeah?" He gave her a smile and a reassuring pat on the back. "Oh, and tell him I'm sorry." 

Rochelle nodded and watched Coach plod his way down the stairs. When she was positive nobody was going to listen to her and Ellis' conversation, she carefully knocked on the door. She didn't recieve an answer, but she knew he was listening.

"Ellis? Honey, can I come in?" The deafening silence ticked by. 

"Yeah." Was the one word answer she got. 

She let herself into the room and found the mechanic sitting on the edge of his bed staring at the floor. This wasn't the Ellis she was used to. The reporter knew Ellis for the happy go lucky, carefree man he was. Not this upset, unhappy person sitting on this bed in front of her. 

She sat next to him and took his hand in hers and gave a caring squeeze. He finally looked up to face her and Rochelle's eyes widened when she looked at the mechanic's eye.

"Damn. He really hit you hard didn't he?" She whispered and raised her hand to gently examine the cut under his black eye but he flinched away.

"I...uh, don't wanna talk about it. I really regret hittin' him back, Ro. An' fer what I said. Coach is jus' tryna help all of us get out alive, and I bashed him for tha'." He muttered to her. 

"I won't sugarcoat it, you and Coach hitting each other didn't solve anything. Except pain, of course. But El, I know that isn't the only thing bothering you right now. And I know what that other thing is." She didn't get a response, not that she expected one. This was obviously going to hurt the mechanic a lot.

"I don't know what to tell you, sweetie. I want to believe that Nick and Caspian are fine and will come back, but we can't sit here forever waiting for that day...We will eventually have to move, Ellis. If Nick is by your side or not." 

"It shoulda been me who went on that supply trip. That way I would've encountered tha' Tank and maybe died, but at least Nick would be safe here with y'all." Rochelle gasped.

"No, Ellis you can't do that to yourself. Nick went because he didn't want _you_  to go and get hurt even more. If anything, Nick is happy that you're safe with us. He wouldn't want your positions to be switched. And hun, Nick is missing you just as much as you miss him right now." 

"We're talkin' about him as if he's dead..." 

Okay, so that's not the path she wanted to go down with this conversation. 

"Ellis, Nick would never die on you. He's fighting for you as we speak, he'd never let you down. Yeah, Nick is a downright asshole at times, but he cares about you, El. More than you probably think he does." 

 _'I'd go as far to say he loves you, Ellis.'_ Rochelle thought to herself, but she didn't say it out loud. That would just cripple the mechanic down further.

Rochelle had seen the fury in Nicks' eyes back at the cannibal's house, when they refused to tell him where Ellis was when they sat down to dinner. He'd gone as far to pulling his gun out. He healed him every time since the start of their relationship, he stuck by the kid's side day and night. 

She'd seen the love in his eyes whenever he'd made the younger man smile or laugh, and she'd seen the pain and anguish every time Ellis was hurt. Nick _loves_  Ellis, and Rochelle was positive of that. Even if neither admitted it yet. 

"I know he's out there, but you're righ'. We can't wait forever..." 

"Hey," She squeezed his hand again and gave her a smile, "We don't have to move yet, Nick might come and find us in that time. And if he doesn't, I promise, he will eventually. He'd never leave you, El. I know what Nick is like. Remember when you were knocked out cold from that Hunter back in the mall?" Ellis looked frozen at that painful memory.

"I still have the scars from tha'. Damn, second worst day of my _life."_ Rochelle would've questioned the first, but she let it go.

"Nick patched you up, and he didn't let anybody else help. Not me, not Coach. After that, I insisted we got more supplies, and he was reluctant first and said he didn't care if you bled out. But you know what? He came with me. And what did he do when we got the extra supplies? He used them on you. And again, none of us were allowed to help. Ellis, if Nick didn't care and wouldn't come back for you, then why has he saved you so many times? Why has he healed you every time you were hurt?" 

"Nick's gonna be pissed if I get myself killed before he comes back then." Ellis smirked. Rochelle chuckled, at least she'd made him crack a joke like his good old self would. 

 

"Ellis, Nick would be pissed if you got a scratch and he wasn't there to clean it." She smiled, and in return, he did too. "Now, we've made dinner downstairs. Do you want to join us?" 

"Hell, sure, why not." 

' _Mission success,'_ Rochelle smiled.

* * *

 

Downstairs, all the others were sat around the table, bowls of soup in front of them. Ellis and Rochelle took a seat. 

"God damn, I am so glad I don't have to eat human meat for dinner this time!" Francis grunted. The others were startled by the memory.

"I'm surprised you didn't throw up afterwards, Francis." Zoey chipped in, swallowing a spoonful of soup. 

"I'm surprised we didn't all get eaten, I am so happy to have all my limbs in order." Rochelle praised, the others laughed.

"They were one fucked up family weren't they? I wonder if they survived that Tank attack." Louis pondered.

"I don't think they would've, well, Molly definitely didn't. She was thrown through the damn wall! And since the others were all knocked out, the Tank probably finished them off as well." Zoey replied.

Next to the mechanic, someone nudged his arm. He faced the person and was startled when he realised who it was. 

 _Coach_. 

Ellis was already planning to make a break for it right there and then, but something in Coach's face stopped him. The older man looked sad, guilty and ashamed of himself. 

"I'm really sorry young'un. I didn't want to hit ya or make ya feel worse than you're already doin'. I was out of order and uncalled for, and I am really sorry. You don't have to forgive me, but jus' know, I am sorry." The former football coach mumbled to the mechanic solemnly.

"I'm sorry too, Coach. Wha' I said was uncalled fer too, and I didn't mean any of it, I'm jus'...Not doin' so great at the moment. Guess I jus' took my anger out on the nearest thing I could. No hard feelin's?" He gave Coach a smile. 

"No hard feelin's." He smiled back.

"Did you guys just make up? Wow, I think I'm going insane to see that." Francis spoke aloud to the two.

"Yeah...We both overreated I suppose, but we're fine now a'course." Ellis responded. 

"You guys both have one hell of a hard punch. Damn, Ellis' eye looks painful and bruised as heck and Coach I expected your lip to bleed a lot more than it did with the size of that cut." Louis inputted. 

The two gave each other a side glance. 

"Alright everyone, I have a surprise!" Rochelle announced, everyone's attention on her. She held up a bottle of a fampus old beer. "I think we all need to relax a bit tonight." Francis looked like he could cry.

"Thank you, Jesus." Francis snatched the bottle of her and refilled his cup with the beer. 

"I've never had beer before..." Zoey whispered into the air. 

"Hell, I bet you're a lightweight, Zo." Francis laughed and recieved a punch in the shoulder off the teenager.

"Shut up! Pour me a glass, now!" She demanded, the challenge hung thick in the air.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast. We're gonna make a toast first." Rochelle poured everyone a glass of beer before raising hers, "To Nick and Caspian." A sad silence followed. 

"To Nick and Caspian." They all repeated and clinked their glasses before drinking.

Ellis didn't speak much after that. Rochelle didn't blame him. 

* * *

 

Since Nick had found this safehouse, he hadn't moved. He was currently sitting in the equivalent of riches in his before life right now. 

The safehouse was stacked with supplies, ammo, food; you name it, it probably had it. It even had working hot water! 

So, obviously being the germaphobe he was, he took a nice, hot shower first. Afterwards, he had taken to scouting the surroundngs of the house from the roof which had a turret on it. He'd also had some fun shooting the shit out of zombies with said turret.

It was almost eerie that a safehouse was this decked and abandoned. Every other safehouse he had encountered with the others was filthy, empty and had hardly any supplies. This was the complete opposite; maybe Lady Luck was still on his side after all. 

As of right now though, Nick was cooking some food for himself. He occasionally checked the windows for any infected, but it was mostly clear of the horde he had faced only yesterday. 

He really was living it up in here. 

Until there were voices outside the safehouse he was in. He froze and instinctively reached for a nearby weapon, which was in face a machete he had found upstairs. He turned the stove off to prevent any noise being heard and pressed his ear up against the front door to hear clearer.

"Man! Are you seeing this, Ryan? This house is loaded! We can totally steal all this shit, since we missed the opportunity on that other family house. We totally could've killedthem all." An American accent rang out, similar to Nick's voice in general. 

"Vincent, are you fucking insane? A house this loaded clearly is habited by someone. What if there is more of them than us? And about before, there were more of them than us." The man seemingly named Ryan replied.

"Vince's right, we can't let all this treasure go. Lets go in and see what we can scavenge. Sorry, Ryan." Another different voice rang out followed by a couple of grunts in agreement. Jesus, how many were there? 

But wait...Nick knew a man from his past named Vincent, and that accent was so damn familiar. There was just no way that this could be his old friend, could it? Or, enemy as it stood from their last argument.

Nick stood back from the door and readied his machete in his hand as he heard the footsteps draw nearer and the lock on the door shake before the doorknob was twisted and opened. Six men holding M16s and wearing armour entered his home and instinctively aimed their rifles at him. 

One had long, black hair sitting just below his shoulders and he wore a thick, leather jacket over a blue undershirt. He had a katana slung across his back. The man had a slim frame and build, but he looked like he could hold his own in a fight too easily.

Another had a completely shaved head, and wore the same equipment as the other; except having a bullet proof vest strapped to his front and a sniper slung across his back. This man was full muscle, and Nick was sure that if he was to turn, he'd definitely become a Tank.

All the others, looked about average. Short, brown locks, weapons, armour; it was as if they were all part of some sort of uniform. However, one particular one stood out to the gambler the most.

Nick wasn't bothered about all the others though though, he was more focussed on the man in front of him, staring him down.

"Nick? Man, is that you?" Vincent looked at him incredulously. It really was him. 

"Yeah. Damn, it's been a while." Nick responded, being wary of the men. Seems Vince had forgotten their argument before after all.

"Lower your guns guys, I know him!" He held his hand in front of him for a handshake. Nick didn't shake it. Vincent let his hand fall to his side awkwardly and made a coughing sound in the back of his throat. "It's been too long, brother. You should come with us, we have a bigger base down the road from here. A working warehouse. We can take these supplies too, give you good guns, armour, supplies! What do you say?" 

Nick was already alone enough, and granted, he trusted Vincent back in the day. But right now? He wasn't too sure. But what choice did he have, it was obvious they'd mug him if they said no, and Nick wanted to keep somewhere remotely safe for now. 

"I'm in." 

"Let's gather all the stuff and head out then! It's good to have you back, Nick." Vincent clapped him on the back and gave him a back up pistol. 

He didn't have a good feeling about this. Didn't they say something about stealing from and killing people?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh I am so sorry. Writer's block is just a mother fucking pain in the damn ass I swear to God. I've had 3 retries of writing this damn chapter because each time I keep nit picking it so much and there's literally no original words on my page because everything's been deleted. ugh. 
> 
> Anyway, i'm back now and this chapter has been from complete scratch. no planning, no drafts, just words on the page. This is because i gave up on this story so much when my writers block came and killed me. The rewrites pissed me off and now i keep thinking i'm not happy with any of the chapters i've written. The only ones i really am happy with are: All of the Dead Centre chapters (1-4), Chapter 9 (Port) and Chapter 12 (Not who they seem). I really feel like just going back and rewriting all the others. ;___; 
> 
> So because of this I want to mention is my writing style has changed a lot through out this story, and I want to go back to certain chapters and improve them, add more things into them etc. so I can be happy with how they come out. I will start improving after this chapter is out. I won't be editing all the chapters of course, just ones I feel need a bit more drama, plot and description.
> 
> so since I've been absent for so long, this chapter can be some sort of apology for not giving any explanation and just upping and going. I am really sorry :/ 
> 
> but i'm back now and that's what matters!
> 
> I MISSED WRITING ALL THIS NICK AND ELLIS SAPPY SHIT
> 
> Oh and btw i've been writing this shit for 4 fucking hours my eyes hurt and IT'S 3 DAMN AM. my life.
> 
> Edit: btw here's a little funny story for you haha. 
> 
> So me and my friend were playing L4d2 on steam, and we have this mutation pack we play from sometimes. Well, me and him decided to play 'United we Stand co-op' today, and I swear to mother fucking god i was in damn stitches at what happened xD
> 
> United we Stand is a mutation that lets you play any campaign with all 8 survivors. As usual, I'm playing as Ellis, and he's playing as Rochelle. 
> 
> I'll tell you this now, I've never seen bot!nick so damn pissed before. This mutation adds Zoey. And Nick doesn't like Zoey apparently. OF COURSE HE FUCKING DOESN'T. that bitch be hitting on his man mhmmmm. 
> 
> So we're playing Hard Rain, and I got taken down from a Hunter as usual since everything goes for me (i blame Ellis that cinnamon roll) and I didn't have a kit, so Zoey comes and starts to heal me. 
> 
> She was standing next to the door as she was healing me, so Nick being the little bastard he is, opens the door and knocks Zoey out of the way and cancelling the heal. Then Nick fucking pulls out HIS medkit and starts healing me and Zoey runs off to help Louis lol 
> 
> I wasn't complaining tbh x) 
> 
> But i have an addon that makes it so the l4d2 survivors always say 'thanks' whenever you heal them, give them stuff etc like in l4d, but when me playing as Ellis says thanks to Nick, I always get 'You're welcome' from Nick, but i never get it from any other survivor. 
> 
> VALVE JUST WANTS THEM TO BE GAY JESUS CHRIST
> 
> When we finally reached the damn saferoom (Even with 8 people on expert it was fucking hard the special infected spawns were through the roof) Nick is literally aiming his gun right at Zoeys face he's that up in her face lol, and she's aiming back at him. I was confused because all the other bots normally lower their weapons when in the saferoom, but nope, they looked like they wanted to kill each other. 
> 
> Then Zoey lowers her weapon, and Nick just walks over and stands directly next to me hahah and says 'Why not, I'll follow you' with that little damn smirk of his.
> 
> And when we get to the fourth chapter, I got smoked and the smoker managed to down me as my friend had got downed by a jockey as well lmao we're good at this game i promise, and Zoey runs to come and help me first before my friend went down. As soon as he's downed, she runs away from me to go help him >:I of course, Nick comes back to save me as i'm on 31hp bleeding hp and nearly dead x-x 
> 
> But Nick didn't help Zoey after that lol. And she didn't escape in the finale. Me, my friend, Nick, Louis and Bill escaped. Rip Zoey and Francis ;___;
> 
> And I accidentally spawned another Ellis in, so the Ellis twins were running around, but Bot!Ellis had the last kit, and me and Nick were in red hp. HE HEALED NICK NOT ME :( I was so sad lol. I died soon after and I kicked evil bot Ellis >.>
> 
> The bots are fucked up with their programming but i like to believe nick's is intentional x) 
> 
> Anyway, it was a funny evening lol. And it's not the first time BotNick has been weird around me just because I'm playing Ellis xD


	19. The First Killing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm, I bet you're thinking, why are the notes at the beginning? 
> 
> Because you see that 'mentions of violent/upsetting themes in future' in the tags? Yeah. This is a warning for that. There is a very dark story in this chapter, and in general tbh, that I want you to be wary off so you don't get triggered/upset ^^
> 
> Other than that, read with caution and there are notes at the end as well!

Shortly after Nick and his new group had stocked all the useful supplies into the backpacks some of the team carried, they all walked out and into the world of infected again. 

He had been introduced to his six new teammates. Vincent, his old friend of course, Ryan, Jerry, Oliver, Luke and Tyler. Oliver, Vincent, Luke and Tyler weren't that intimidating, and were actually quite nice and supportive to the gambler. Ryan and Jerry were a completely opposite story. They hadn't said much to him, and whenever they'd see a stray infected, they'd take the pleasure to decapitate or mutilate the zombie until it was just a pile of blood and gore on the floor. 

He'd never seen someone enjoy killing so much. But then again, that was apparently what these guys would be known for. 

He knew that this was going to be a mistake the moment he'd said the simple 'Yes' to them back at his safe house. Dwelling more on it though, if he had have said no, there was a high chance they would've shot him down and stole his stuff anyhow. He didn't have to trust these guys obviously, he could just tag along for the extra protection until he ran into his, dare he say it, _friends_ again. 

And Nick _had_ came to think of them as friends, not just regular old teammates. At the start, Nick was an insensitive prick that nobody wanted to talk around unless it was survival based. Even Rochelle hated talking to him. But now, Rochelle and him had a good joking around, were friendly to each other. He had a good bond with Ellis of course, and desperately hoped he hadn't got himself into dumb shit that got him hurt when he wasn't around; but before, he had hated Ellis with a passion. He and Coach had some sort of weird bond too, one where they'd put each other in their place, but would look out for each other when the time arose. 

The teammates from the Port however? He wasn't so sure yet, but he already hated Zoey for obvious reasons; Francis just pissed him off and Louis, however, seemed like a good guy. 

The guys he was with now were the complete opposite. 

"So, Nicolas, why'd you leave Vegas, eh?" Vincent broke him out of his thoughts suddenly and was now walking in stride with him as the others patrolled in front. 

"The casinos there got boring, I suppose. Same opponents, money; cheap, stuck up hookers." He responded, not quite fond of the small talk.

"Oh please, you were rolling in the money there! Anyway, I won't ask any more, but where'd you go afterwards?" 

"Headed down to the hick town that is Savannah. There was a casino boat down there; but being the lucky prick I am, the day I go down there, the infection breaks out. I wish I had stayed in Vegas for some reasons, personally. What did you do?" Even if he had to listen to the bragging onslaught of what Vincent had done after he'd left, it was better to get the subject off himself.

"I stuck around in Vegas for a little bit after, but the infection has spread up there too, sadly. So I moved out snd managed to hike a boat. I crashed down south here of course, but it's a lot less hectic here than in Sin City. It really is a big shame, lost my wife and my money. The money mattered more though." He laughed at the last sentence, which didn't get a laugh out of his old gambling friend like he had expected. Nick's eyebrows just shot up before he hid under his poker face again. 

_Did he seriously just fucking say that? 'Money is better than my wife,'? What the fuck._

"Hey, Vincent!" Ryan called back to them, "We're at the base!" 

"Wait, wait. Guys, come here." He beckoned them over with his finger. "See that girl over there?" He pointed to a streetlight next to a broken building. There was a small, middle aged woman carrying a huge supply bag on her back. She didn't appear to have any weapons on her, making her the perfect target for the group's assault on her. She seemed to be eying up their base.

"Ha, let's take her." Jerry approached her, rifle out in front of him as he smirked and took aim. 

The other followed suit, aiming at her and surrounding her in a circle with her in the middle. She looked instantly terrified, and Nick didn't want to think about what they were going to do to her. But he had to show them he was one of them now and wouldn't rebel against them, so he aimed his weapon too; no matter how guilty he felt about it. 

"No! Please, I just need a place to stay! Is this your base? I lost my child a while back and..." She broke out into incoherent sobs, sometimes muttering out the name of her deceased child. 

Ryan laughed at her pathetic cries and walked forward before punching her in the gut hard and making her collapse onto her knees. He then proceeded to beat the woman to a pulp, but wanted to make sure she was still conscious for the next part. 

"Take the supplies off her." Vincent ordered. "Go on, Nick." 

Nick disguised his emotions with his poker face as he normally did, and approached the beaten woman writhing on the floor, hot tears staining her cheeks as she moaned in pain. 

As he tugged the backpack from her back, he got significantly close to one of her ears and muttered a quiet 'I am so sorry...' in her ear. She looked at him with an odd sort of understanding, seemingly realising this wasn't his choice. She gave a small, weak smile before she turned sad again. 

He handed the backpack to Oliver as Luke and Tyler searched her for any other supplies. When they had scavenged her of all of the things they could find on her, Jerry shot her straight in the eye with his rifle; not hesitating one bit. 

The blood leaked out her cornea rapidly, but slowed down as the blood drained and came to a halt. The rest of her body spasmed, before she lay still and lifeless; all of her hope to survive gone in an instant. Because of these monsters, _his new teammates._

Nick was considering booking it out of there as fast as possible. 

But he couldn't, he had shown these guys that he was one of them now. They'd do the same as they'd done to the woman if they found out he was a traitor, which he'd have to hide for a while if his friends ran into them. 

 _When_ his friends ran into them, he corrected. 

But even thinking of that possibility, would it be safe? There would be seven vs six, but this six were much stronger than they are, muscle wise. They may not have as good teamwork as his friends have, but they were built like Tanks; at least ryan and Jerry anyway. 

They would end up getting banged up pretty badly, and what would his friends think if they saw him on their side? They'd never trust him again. _Ellis would never trust him again._

_No, he wasn't going there with that thought._

He was clapped on the back with a hearty slap by someone which broke him from his thoughts. 

"He's one of us now, lads! Nice one, Nicky." Jerry grinned from ear to ear maliciously. The others cheered on, laughing but all Nick could think was how badly he wanted to punch Jerry because of the nickname, but he let it slide so he was sure he'd get in their base with all his limbs intact. 

"Come on, guys, let's get inside and unload the supplies." Vincent ordered. He seemed to be the leader of the group. 

The vast, towering gates of their base were unlocked by a keycode on the stone wall. Nick snuck a peek and found out the password was 0583. He stored it in the back of his mind, he'd undoubtedly need to remember this for later. 

They walked through once they were open, and Nick was fucking terrified by what he saw next. On either sides of the walkway from the gates, there were two fences. One fence with barbed wire fences with distorted, decrepid infected on one side. They clawed and chewed on the barbed wire, eager to escape and eat their flesh. 

On the other fence, there were _survivors._ Children mostly, some teenagers caring for them; but that was it. They sat huddling in their hoodies and oversized blankets, shivering in the brisk, cold air. And his group wasn't doing anything about it. Were they prisoners here or something? Test subjects? Nick wasn't sure he wanted to know. 

They entered the building and the gambler's theory was later confirmed when they passed a 'testing lab'. Vincent told the others to unload the supplies but told Nick to follow him down to the labs. They wandered down a long, white hallway; one like you'd see in a hospital. But this was scarier. 

There were glass windows on either sides of the hallway with mutated infected behind them; some even Nick hadn't seen before, new ones it seemed, and some of innocent survivors again. Except, they weren't innocent anymore. Some missed half of their faces, some other limbs, organs. Some were even half infected; mutilated skin and limbs, but normal features and instincts. 

They didn't just kill, they did it in some fucked up ways didn't they? And Nick was at the centre of it all. 

Vincent then lead him into a replica of a hospital room. It had the usual white bed, monitors by the bedside, a small TV in the top corner of the room, a bathroom and a seating area next to the bed. 

Vincent dug around in a cabinet and pulled a syringe out. Nick immediately had flash backs of the cannibals; how they'd used a syringe to drug him and his friends. He wasn't so sure about this.

"Due to all our testing," Vincent began to explain, "We don't actually have to physically examine you for bites. We simply inject this into the patient and see if they are infected from the reaction they get. If you don't feel anything, you are fine, if you feel immense pain or nausea, you are infected. These two symptoms are normally very identifiable by how you act." 

"You only test on infected people, right? I saw a lot of people behind glass frames and the ones outside." The gambler asked anxiously. 

"Of course. We only killed the woman outside because of the pain she would be in. In a sense, we helped her; we reunited her with her child. They are now together in heaven, peacefully living their afterlife." He smiled sickeningly. _Who could think like that?!_

"Alright." Nick let Vincent roll up his suit sleeve and position the syringe above his wrist, aimed at a vein. He didn't know how this would turn out, after all, he is immune to the virus. What if Vince thought he was the key to the cure and tested on him instead? 

He plunged the needle in without hesitation. Their was a sting from the sharpness, but other than that, he felt fine, which was a relief. 

"Non-infected. In fact, you're immune aren't you?" Vincent smirked. "You lucky bastard, ha!" He laughed.

"Yep. Don't know why, don't know how. But it's nice to know I won't turn into one of those human-eating fucks." Nick fake laughed to make it seem believable. 

"I second that of course, but sadly, I myself am not immune. I've came close a couple of times to becoming one, but I've managed to pull through and stab the fucker before he can get me. What do the zombies do if they can't infect you then?"

"They mostly just beat me to shit. Especially those mutated ones, they used to go after someone I know— _knew! Yes, knew,"_ That was close, but luckily he managed to cover it up. "—before all the time. I'm surprised he got out of it sometimes." 

_Ellis got out of it every time because I was there with him. Why did Coach make ME go on this damn supply trip, out of all of us?!_

"Haha, poor guy, I bet. What was their name?" Vincent asked. Nick was already making the lie up in his head but there was a knock at the door, and Luke appeared.

"Hopefully not infected, Nick?" Luke grinned at him. Out of them all, Luke and Oliver seemed the nicest. The gambler was thankful that there was someone who wasn't entirely insane like the rest of them. 

"Nope." 

"Good, I just came to see if you wanted to come and get shown to your room. You're sharing with me, I hope you don't mind." He explained sheepishly. 

"Not at all." He gave a small smile. 

"You show him there, Luke, we'll all talk more later, it's getting late; and I'm heading to bed. Goodnight, Luke and Nick." They both turned to head out the room when Vincent called his old friend back. "It's good to have you back, Nick. It really is." 

Nick felt uneasy from the words. 

Luke and Nick then began walking back up the hallways and to the rooms supposedly. 

"So, how do you like it here so far?" Luke asked.

"Between you and me, kid, this place is fucking creepy." He felt like he could trust Luke, being younger than him and thought he might have the same thoughts. 

Thankfully, he did. "I feel the same. The labs are really overdone. I myself never go out when they go to capture more survivors. I'd considering yourself lucky, Nick. If you weren't friends with Vincent, you'd be locked up like them right now." 

"Wait, 'capture more survivors'? Vince told me he only tested on _infected_ survivors, I guess considering they'd be a lost cause. This is sick. Fucking sick." The gambler could've vomitted right there and then. Luke shushed him afterwards.

"Look, we can't talk about this here, there are cameras in these hallways. If they pick up on us discussing it, we'll be joining these guys behind the fences outside. Back in our room, there's no cameras. We can talk more there. And I'll tell you some secrets about this place you won't want to know, but it's better if you do." 

After following Luke down entwining and curving hallways, they finally arrived at seemingly their room. Inside, it was actually quite nice. Furnished carpets, a beds on both sides, a few desks and weapon holders. But it had no windows. It was an isolated room, but that could only be used to shield people inside from the outside world. This place, was literally a prison for the poor people inside it. 

"What are the secrets here then?" Nick asked. 

Luke took a deep breath. "Vincent, he isn't the man he seems, Nick. He seems friendly towards you on the outside of course, and takes you into the group as one of his own...But in reality, I've seen what he's done, and Nick I won't ever unsee it."

Nick nodded for him to continue, but gave him an understanding to take his time if this 'secret' was more severe than he thought. 

"A while ago, we found a girl. Around twenty one, I'd say, not too sure. But Vincent had known her before, and he treated her like a damn princess. Protected her from the zombies, gave her new weapons every day, _made her fall for him._  And around this point, she's been with us for a couple of months, and she's really going for Vince. And Vincent makes the mistake of fucking this girl, right? And they find out in two months time that he made her _pregnant._ And you know what he did?" 

Nick wasn't sure he wanted to know, this story was just reminding him of his ex-wife. He didn't reply, just shook his head idly. 

"He waits for her to have the baby, and ends her with a bullet in her skull. Just like that, and she's gone. And for fuck's sake I feel horrible for her, but that baby girl...I felt even worse. Vincent got obsessed with her child, because he thought the child brought up in the apocalypse would be pure and uninfected of some sort. So he _tested_ on this fucking _three day_ old baby. He's stabbing her with syringes, using weird antidotes on her, and I never forgot her screams of agony. He didn't feed her, didn't keep her alive; just obsessed with the pureness of her. She died a couple of days in her life, five I believe. And you know what he did after that? Tossed her corpse to the zombies, and he watched them eat her, not regretting anything." 

"Jesus Christ...That's...That's horrible." Nick never normally felt remorse, but Jesus, he had to for that story. He could practically feel his heart breaking of the thought of the woman and her child dying in such cruel ways. 

"I really have never slept right after that. Just the thought of it happening to someone else, even us, him testing and killing us, haunts me every day. Both of their screams haunt me every day. But afterwards, Vincent was never really right. That was when the sick tests started on more survivors, and he started killing others for supplies. The other poor bastards in our group know of this story, and are that scared of it, even Ryan and Jerry, that they do whatever he says." 

"If I had to experience watching that, I would've left ages ago. Seriously kid, why haven't you? You could easily sneak by, maybe take a couple of survivors with you and be on your way." The gambler had a fair point, but Luke sighed again sadly.

"I wish I could, Nick. But he has taken all the supplies in this area. I know you only joined us for the same reason as I did, I know you're not a bad person." 

"Woah, how do you make an assumption like that? I've done tons of wrong shit in my life, kid." He didn't mean to get defensive after what Luke had just confided in him, but it was a sort of habit. 

"I made the assumption the minute I heard you say 'I'm so sorry,' to that woman we killed earlier." Fuck, this kid got him there. Luke continued, "I think that maybe, me, you and Oliver could just keep all of this to ourselves. Ollie, by the way, is my brother and we're in the same boat. We can talk with him tomorrow. And Nick, I've been with these guys for months now, but I trust you more than I've ever trusted them, exception of Ollie, of course. And about the sorry thing, I have apologised to every survivor the others have robbed and killed. Ryan noticed once, and that didn't end well. I still have the bruises on my chest for the beating he gave me. 

"These people, are not who you seem. You need to watch your back when you're around them. Now, let's get some rest. Don't want the others thinking we're still awake this late." They both nestled into their beds, Nick happy to just have the comfiness of a soft bed back again. 

Even as he tried to fall into a peaceful rest, he couldn't. Luke's words would echo in his head over and over. 

But as well as that, he'd always fallen asleep next to Ellis, whom he missed so dearly now, every time he went to sleep. And without him, it seemed he'd go without sleep as well. Because he knew, that somewhere out there, his lover was in danger.

And he couldn't do anything about it. 

If he got lost and the mechanic just so-happened to be wandering around alone, and ran into his group, he wouldn't want to imagine what would happen. But Nick would jump in front of him so fast, and would protect him so fast. 

Then again, it was the same scenario he had thought before. _Six vs seven,_  him not counting in his group of course _,_ but what if the seven lost? They'd say goodbye to their freedom and hello to testing and torture. 

Yes, he wanted to see them again, but doing so, would that cost one of their lives due to his teammates? 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Nick didn't get much last chapted, here is a chapter completely about him and his new group! 
> 
> By the way, this actually sickened me to write lol. But it was so pleasing in a weird way. Dark themes are amazing, but talking about the mutilated survivors and Luke's story was kinda difficult. 
> 
> Next chapter will show what Ellis and their group are doing! 
> 
> This chapter just shows their personalities a bit more, how fucked up they really are and leaves you with ideas on what's to come. Enjoy and stay tuned, it's about to get dark. ;)


	20. The plan

The next morning, the uneasiness that had pooled in his stomach as he had listened to that dreadful story had resurfaced twice as worse, realising that now, he would have to face the monsters that caused the woman such pain. 

He had woken up bright and breezy, immediately taking a shower in their ensuite bathroom and cleaning his clothes of any stains with the remaining water, since Luke had informed him there was no washing machines or anything like that. They had to do it manually. 

Nick alone had found that quite strange really, such a decked out base like this, with damn torture chambers and cells, testing rooms and interrogation rooms; and it didn't even have a wash room? Pathetic. 

Nonetheless, once he was fresh and dry, joyful to once again be sparkling clean again, he followed Luke to the dining room for breakfast with the others. Without Luke there to guide him, the gambler was sure he would've already been lost in the massive building. Then again, that meant it was safe from the infected outside. 

And in this case, survivors too. 

They reached the dining room in a couple of minutes and Nick scanned the room around him. At the large table sat his other five teammates; Tyler, Ryan, Jerry, Oliver and Vincent. Luke took a seat and ushered Nick to do so as well. 

The room wasn't very big however, just a small kitchen and the table sat in the middle. If this was normal life, you could call this room shoddy, but in the apocalypse, it was luxury to have something like this readily prepared for you every meal time. 

"Mornin', lads." Jerry welcomed them with a bearded grin as he downed his drink, seemingly alcohol Nick presumed, Jerry seemed like an alcohol man; before letting out a huge belch. 

_Who has alcohol at the start of the morning?_

"Morning, guys. Did you all sleep well?" Luke replied kindly, though the gambler could tell he felt differently about these people. 

"Very well, thanks brother. It has been hard to sleep lately though, all those infected that charged at the base the other day." Oliver sighed. 

"'Charged at your base?' What do you mean?" Nick asked as he scrounged the table of the contents upon it. There was a fresh bowl of fruit, some cereal, a carton of milk and a tall glass of orange juice to share. The ex-conman was over the moon to see not one piece of meat on the table. 

"A while ago, we were attacked by a huge horde." Vincent began to explain, "And I don't mean your average 'huge' horde; this could be considered the population of a small city. There were tons of 'em, those weird mutated ones as well. It was a hard battle for sure, but we pulled through eventually." 

"I think we've all had our fair share of tough battles. Any fucked up scenarios you've been in during the apocalypse, Nick?" Tyler asked curiously, cocking his head to the side intrigued. 

Nick sighed. "The likeability of you believing me is damn slim here, but...Back with my—" He paused, did he really want to tell them about his friends? They would get suspicious, Nick knew. But he'd already started talking, and he couldn't stop now. "My old group, we were driving away from a port, and we saw a house we could take refuge in since some of us we're injured. Turns out, five bastards come out the house, shove a shotgun to one of our heads and demand what we're doing here."

"I can't blame 'em, safety first, right? But maybe right against the head is a bit much, but we've done that too, ha!" Ryan jumped in before letting Nick continue.

"Anyway, they trust us like that and invite us inside. They seem all sweet and shit like that, but really; they just wanted us for food. As in, they wanted to fucking eat _us._ Fucking _cannibals."_ He promptly stopped himself before spewwing any other shit that happened after that, they didn't need to know any of that. 

"Shit! And you escaped that?!" Oliver exclaimed, before he paused abruptly. "Are you saying that they _ate_ your teammates?"

"No, not at all. We all escaped from there thanks to a Tank; but we had one with a stabbed chest and another two badly wounded." He finished his story telling there. 

"Oh thank God, that would've been horrible to see or experience." Oliver sighed a relief. 

"Where are your teammates then, Nicholas?" Vincent asked not-so-gingerly. It was almost creepy how innocent the question was, but how obsessed Vincent looked at getting the answer out of him. 

"I...Don't know. Me and this fucking brat went on a supply run, and it seems that Tank caught up with us, because the next thing I know he's crashed into the side of the safehouse where all the others were staying. I think they got away, though." That 'think' part was his hurt and doubt showing through, and Vince could definitely see that. 

"I'm sorry to hear that, mate, but ya have got us now! We ain't gonna have that happenin' any time soon." Jerry clapped him on the back. Afterwards, they all fell into silence, except for the sounds of them choosing their breakfast and chomping it down. 

And you know what? These guys might not be so bad, but he definitely preferred his trusted friends to them any day. He hoped he'd see them soon.

* * *

 "You're not sleeping?" Zoey asked the mechanic who had pondered downstairs from his room, eyes downcast and sad. She'd thought they'd at least cheered Ellis up when they had dinner together, but it seemed he had returned to his depressive state once again. It was her watch, and she was alarmed when she had noticed the awake boy not asleep upstairs. 

"I tried, Zo, but I can't. Can't do nothin' 'bout it, either." He replied absently, not really paying full attention to the conversation, and not wanting to be a part of it as well. 

"I don't mean to pry at all, but why can't you? Of course you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She smiled so sweetly that Ellis felt sick. 

"I...uh, oh, it's...The zombies, man. I can always hear 'em in the nigh'." He twiddled his thumbs averting her gaze so she didn't get suspicious. He didn't want to say the real reason. 

Of course, she noticed anyhow. "Everybody else is sleeping just fine. And I can't hear anything right now, we must be a while away from the hordes. I suppose you don't want to tell me, which is fine." Oh for fucks sake she was playing that damn card that would make the mechanic feel bad and blurt out all of his feelings to her or whatever sappy shit that was. 

But no, Ellis wasn't going to fall for that old trick. He simply turned away from her and carried on to the living room and away from the front door she was guarding. 

He checked the clock on the wall. Three AM. It was supposed to be Coach's watch. Oh boy...

He took a position on the partly destroyed couch perched in the corner of the room and sunk into it's comfiness almost immediately. He wanted to close his eyes so badly, wanted to sleep; but he knew the nightmares would haunt him even more. The cannibals would torment in his dreams, he'd make up crazy scenarios about them if they hadn't escaped the other day. He'd see Nick getting chased by the Tank, see his world crumbling down.

In theory, you could say he was scared to close his eyes. But who could sleep with the horrors they faced every day?

Quietly in the background, he could hear Zoey and Coach's voices, presumably muttering something along the lines of 'Good night' and 'Have a good watch' before he briefly heard his name mentioned. Great, Zoey had told Coach he was in here; and now he'd come and talk to him, right?

And he hit the nail on the head, he could hear the footsteps approaching the living room, getting louder with every step signalling the person was getting closer to him. He turned himself onto his side and faced the couch corner and shut his eyes, trying to fake his rest so Coach could piss off and leave him alone.

Their conflict was solved of course, they had apologised, shook hands and were friends again naturally. But deep down, the mechanic knew that when the time came, Coach would force them to leave again, without Nick or Caspian. He knew it was coming, he'd just tell him they were dead and they had to move to survive.

But what if the two lost teammates weren't surviving either? How could they just leave them like that? He had no idea how the ex football coach slept at night.

"Ellis, I know you're awake boy." Coach's voice sounded from right behind him and he groaned into the plush cushions.

"Nah, I ain't." He sleep garbled.

"Just gave yourself away, son." Coach laughed behind him. Ellis wasn't amused and turned and sat up to face him. The man gave him a forced grin. It disappeared when the mechanic glared back.

"I thought we ended this yesterday, young'un." Coach sighed, dragging a hand over his face.

"It's not that, man. I jus'...Can't sleep." He looked down.

"Well, why not? It's perfectly safe in here, boy."

"Yew don't get it. Jus' go back to the watch." Ellis demanded, which was very out of character for him, but not as of lately.

Coach wasn't going to press him though. "Alrigh' boy. G'night."

With that, the football coach left the room, much to the mechanic's relief. He pressed himself into the cushion once more and breathed slowly. He wasn't sure how long he laid in this position, but the hours seemed to tick by slowly the longer he did. The longer his anguish began to settle in, the longer his pain began to show.

The longer his heart began to constrict upon itself and he drifted into a panic-filled sleep eventually.

* * *

"I think we have about two days of food left...And this place isn't sturdy enough to survive a brutal attack, either." Rochelle's voice echoed in the background as the mechanic was just waking up.

"We don't have to move yet of course, Ro, we're just getting prepared if we need to." Louis spoke out.

"We need to find Caspian and Nick too, guys. They could still be out there looking for us." Zoey joined in the conversation.

"They're good as dead, why should we bother?" Francis muttered, the others gave him a shocked look. "Don't get your panties in a twist ladies, all I'm saying is, they wouldn't survive a couple of days out there." Rochelle slapped him on the arm.

"Don't say that. They're fine and we'll find them eventually. So, when we do have to move, what are we going to do?" She asked afterwards, it was good to have a plan B after all.

"I say we get out of the city." Coach announced from the hallway. All of them turned to him.

"How do you expect we do that?" The reporter asked, but wasn't disagreeing just yet.

"Hell, I don't care how we do it, as long as we stay as far away from the military and CEDA as possible. They test on their survivors, I think we could probably get to a different part of America, or even a different part of the world with the proper transport." Louis pondered. 

"What about a boat?" The mechanic joined the conversation, standing in the threshold of the doorway. "I know it kinda seems impossible, y'all, but if we can get enough food and water for the boat trip an' shit, get a good boat that can hold all of us an' we can easily sail away." 

"It's a good plan, but where are we going to find a boat?" Zoey questioned. 

"Hmm...Wait, wasn't there a few at the port?" Rochelle turned to the three who had been taking refuge at the port before. 

"Well, I can't say for sure, but that was where Bill was saying we could sail from. So ideally there should be a boat, since Ellis has the same plan as what Bill did." The technician responded. 

"Alrigh' y'all, we'll head back to the port if we can—" Coach started but was cut off by Francis. 

"How are we going to even get back to that shitty boat dock? It's miles away and we'll probably run into those damn cannibals again if they survived that Tank attack." He pointed out.

"I can't believe I am saying this, but Francis is right. There's no way we can get back to the old port, but we might be able to find one around this area, if we can. When we move out for supplies when we run out of food, we could stock up on guns and look around for a new safehouse and a boat. Sound good, everyone?" Rochelle ordered, and everyone agreed quickly.

They finally had a plan that could get them out alive.

* * *

 

After breakfast, Luke and Ollie had shown Nick the basics of the base. 

In that time, the gambler had found out that the six each ran their own stations around the base. Vincent controlled the labs, Jerry controlled the armory, Ryan controlled the gates and fences, Tyler was supply manager, Ollie worked on generators around the base and Luke was in charge of the electricity flow around the different powered rooms. 

Luke had offered for him to help him which he obliged to, and had warned him that power cuts happened often due to the lack of electricty since the epidemic had spread around the world. Nobody fixed the national grid anymore, so they had to make do with as much electricty as they could power and make sure it went to a good cause. 

They worked shifts of course. Nobody worked at nights to preserve as much power as possible and everything was turned off, but afternoons and evenings if they weren't out finding some poor bastard to loot, they were powering the base to it's full protection and extent for the six. 

With Nick now helping, they were sure they'd be able to get more done daily, which would equal a better overall efficiency of the base. 

Luckily Luke and Oliver worked near enough next to each other, meaning that the two people Nick trusted most were almost by his side at all times, which he had no problem with. The problem he did however was how much he would spot the cameras zooming in on him specifically at all times. 

Luke had mentioned yesterday how the cameras were in every room except the bedrooms, but this was a bit extreme. He knew exactly who was behind that camera as well. 

No one other than that suave bitch Vincent. 

It was pretty damn obvious Vince had been on edge even since his story involving his group was spurted out at the table earlier. It was as if he feared that Nick would try and find his teammates and betray them and try and take their base from them. 

Which may or may not be the gambler's _exact_ plan. 

"Hey, don't worry about him. He's just checking up on you because you're new." Ollie nudged his shoulder, he'd been watching Nick stare at the camera for a couple of minutes now. 

"Or he's recording you." Luke jumped in. Ollie elbowed him in the ribs. "What?" He asked incredulously. "It has happened before." 

"I take it this creepy prison has more than one horror story then?" Nick stated. 

"You told him about the girl!?" Oliver asked shockingly.

"Well, he deserves to know, doesn't he? He needs to know how fucked up this place really is." Luke whispered to his brother, careful not to alert the cameras. "He should know about the other story."

"Fine. Look, a while ago, Vincent would record the stages of his test subjects' mutations as they turned and formed into new beings. He would take observations and recordings, but what was on the camera was by far the worst. It recorded their wretched screams and wails for help, their scratching among the walls as they scraped until their finger nails were bleeding and raw." Oliver whispered as he wired up another generator.

"None of his test subjects live of course, but he never deletes the recordings. Over time, they become even more dark and distorted in the memory card, which makes them a whole lot worse. You don't want to watch them." Luke ended the tale there, glancing up at the camera towards them as a warning to keep it down for now. 

Nick sighed. "I should've left yesterday, when I could've." 

"You still can. But there's no way you'll be able to sneak past. Vincent and Ryan keep a close watch on the gates at all times. Day, night, dawn; you name it, they're watching. If they spotted you sneaking away once, you'd get a beating and you'd join the testing labs with Vincent. That's how much he cares about us all, he'd throw us under the bus every damn time if he had to." Oliver was nudged by Luke, and they ended the conversation as the camera zoomed in again. 

"But...If you really want to get out of here, let us know, and we can help you. We don't want to be here any longer than we have to, either. We're just here for the food and supplies." Oliver whispered to him before silence settled over them again. 

A while later, Nick was working on the electricity alone as Luke was taking a break, and a rusty sounding voice echoed over the partly damaged microphone in the corner of the room. 

"Nicholas? Yes, Nick, come to my room please. Thank you." Even from the crackling sound from the static over the mic, the gambler could make out Vincent's voice. 

"I'll show ya the way." Jerry siddled up next to him as he lead him down a long, tunnelling hallway and made a sharp turn which led to one room at the end of the hallway. "Just in there, my fella." 

"Thanks." He simply muttered before knocking on the door. A quiet 'Come in,' came from the other side so he let himself in. 

"Ah, Nick, please do take a seat." Vincent gave him a forced smile. Nick could tell he had heard every bit of his, Luke's and Oliver's conversation earlier. 

"You wanted to see me I suppose." The gambler spoke as he sat down on one of the plush seats across from Vincent. 

"Yes. I see you are getting along well with Oliver and Luke, and very good with your work as well actually. It seems Luke must've taught you the basics amazingly." 

"Yeppers." He wanted to make this sort of 'meeting' as short as possible, so he could get back to his shift and learning his way around the building, perhaps so he could plan an arrangement to escape with Luke and Oliver. 

"I have been thinking Nick...What would you do if we found your old teammates?" Damn, he knew this was coming. His thought earlier was deeming to be correct by this point. 

"What would you do if we found them?" He countered the other's question, with a quirk of his brows and a slight tilt of one corner of his lips. Vincent gave him a stern look at the cocky look he was currently giving. 

"I don't appreciate that tone, Nicholas. If you're going to live in _my_ base, you better do as _I_ say. Now answer the question." He ordered strictly. 

He happily would've told Vincent to shove his question up his damn ass, but because he values his life, he decided to make up a lie instead. 

"Hey, they haven't came looking for me and left me behind. I am with you guys till the end." It may have been a sort of corny answer, but it was better than the truth. If he would've told Vince that he planned to go back with his old teammates as soon as he found them, Vincent wouldn't ever let him leave this building. 

"It's good to hear that, Nick, you can go now." Nick stood up to leave before Vincent called back to him again. 

"Yes?" He turned around reluctantly again.

"Be careful who you trust, Nick, those brothers will tell anybody anything to get what they want." Vincent gave him a smile before shutting the door as the gambler walked out. 

_Who can I trust in this damn place..._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a roll getting these chapters out lately. I'm proud of myself lol.
> 
> So, will Nick ever find out how to escape these guys? Or will he forever be stuck with them? 
> 
> You'll have to find out mwahah


	21. Ready Aim Fire

**Two days later.**

Coach stood by the door, pistol in hand and the half empty medkit slung on his back. 

"Alright y'all, we know the plan. We get supplies and look for a boat. When we get one, we go and look for Nick and Cas. Got it?" The football coach announced.

"They're probably dead already." Francis muttered.

"You're comfortable with leaving them behind? How did I not see that coming." Louis shot the biker an angered look, clenching his fists before walking back into the safehouse, searching.

"That's not what I'm implying, it's just...We'll trek half way across this damn city to find them dead, or not find them all." 

"We're still looking, Francis, whether you fucking like it or not. Nick might've not been _your_ teammate, but he's mine, Coach's and Ellis'." Rochelle snapped at him which caught Francis off guard. 

"Oh come on, baby—"

"No! You don't fucking throw Nick under the bus. Don't you damn 'baby' me. Hmph!" Rochelle joined Coach by the door, arms crossed over her chest. Zoey shook her head at Francis.

"You damn well had that coming, Francis." He didn't reply, just stood by the door with them. 

Louis appeared again with them by the door, brandishing three pistols and a knife. He gave a pistol to Ellis, Zoey and Rochelle before keeping the knife for himself. 

"Oh come on! Why can't I have a weapon?" Francis asked, annoyed.

"If ya want one, go search fer one." Ellis shot back. 

The biker rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever, I'll go without one." 

"We'll probably stop by a gun store if we find one anyway. Need some better weapons than this." Coach spoke. 

Once they were all stocked up on ammo and ready to go, Coach lead them out into the early morning sunlight. The rays were warm and the skies were blue, which didn't reflect the world they lived in at all. It was weird to have such a beautiful atmopshere when you're surrounded by freaks that wanted to eat you. 

They began walking away from the safehouse and further into the city. The skyscrapers were broken and destroyed, some debris even hanging off a few of the walls as the buildings toppled onto their sides. The concrete pathways were coated in rubble and other scrap materials that had been destroyed. 

But by far, the scariest bit about this decrepid city was that it didn't look as if the infected had caused all of this destruction, it looked as if it was caused by survivors. At first, they thought it could've been the military, but why would the military come all the way out here into the zone where the virus was the most deadly? The amount of infected they'd seen implied that anyway. 

There was no point on dwelling on it though, they had to get working on the plan. Even Ellis would admit to himself that the likelihood of finding a boat was slim, even a working car was slim too, but they had to try. Trying was all they had nowadays, and they couldn't afford to lose that. 

They rounded a street corner and spotted some infected laying on the concrete, sitting against walls, eating dead corpses. When they approached them, the infected sprung to life, but they seemed to be injured; they didn't run, they just limped, even fell over a few times. 

"Louis, you should take them out. We need to preserve ammo and not alert any infected to us from gunshots." Zoey advised and the technician nodded. He brandished his knife and stealthily walked towards the zombies. 

He punched one in the jaw before stabbing it in the head. He pulled his knife out just as another tried to jump him; he stood back a bit before plunging the blade straight through the zombies' neck. Blood spewed out and onto his face as it fell to the floor, dead. The last one was lying prone on the ground, nearly dead as it was. He finished it with a knife to the back of the skull. He wiped the excess blood off his knife with his hand.

"Damn, nice one, young'un." Coach praised him, shooting him a grin.

They walked down endless streets before Zoey caught something in the corner of her eye. 

"Hey, guys, should we check out this store? Doesn't look as battered as the rest." They inspected the shop, the windows were fully in tact and the door was nearly off it's hinges, but open nonetheless. It was dark inside the store, indicating the power was out, unsurprisingly. 

They stepped in one after the other slowly, trying not to make much noise so they wouldn't alert any infected if there were any inside. After a quick look around, the place could be deemed as safe, there were no infected in sight. 

It seemed to just be a general store. It sold things like disinfectant, hardware items, electrical supplies, and of course, some food and drink. But as they checked the shelves, it was obvious all the food had been taken. The only few things that were left were hardware items, but they were useless for now. 

Ellis managed to get the drawers hidden under the cash register open and was rummaging through them. As if today was his lucky day, he managed to find another pistol. It couldn't hold as many bullets as the other's pistols' could, but it was good enough for now. 

"'Ey, Francis, catch." He threw the pistol to the biker and he caught it. When he realised what it was, he gave gim a grin and checked its ammo. Full. 

"Thanks, kid." He shoved the pistol in his holster and looked around the general store for Rochelle. 

He found her going through empty packets and under shelves around the next isle. He approached her, thinking of what to say to her. She was undoubtedly pissed at him, and he didn't want things like that at all. 

"Ro—" She immediately turned around, eyes narrowed, her lips pursed together in a straight, thin line. "Woah, woah! Before you slap me, I...uh. Came to apologise." Her eyes seemed to soften, for only a moment. 

"I didn't mean to snap...I just, I miss Nick, okay? Yeah, he's a bastard at times, but...He means a lot to me. Like you all do of course, but I don't want to lose him." The biker walked up to her and pulled her into his arms.

"Babe, I didn't mean to say we wouldn't find him, but I just can't let ya get hurt." He tried to explain. 

She pulled away. "It's fine, let's just keep looking." 

They went to the next isle where they found Coach and Louis searching cupboards and shelves too. They turned to face them as soon as they noticed them. 

"Find anything?" They asked.

"Not yet, kid managed to get me a gun though. Might be all we can find here." Francis told them and they nodded before walking back to the store entrance where they found Zoey and Ellis. 

"Nothin' else here, y'all, may as well keep walkin". 

They agreed and were back out on the roads again. 

* * *

 

Vincent's group were all working on powering the base like they usually were when his voice sounded in the speakers overhead. 

"We are going out to find new survivors. Get to the exit gates prepared with weapons and gear immediately." The voice commanded. 

"Looks like we're gonna have to kill again...Or capture." Luke mumbled. "Just stick with me and Ollie, Nick, we can show you where the gear is." 

"I'm not going near any of those other crazy fucks." He responded as Luke lead him to the armory in the building. It was insane the amount of fully loaded rifles kept in here. Bullet proof vests, grenades, secondary weapons; these guys really were loaded up in here. He grumbled to himself as he picked up a deagle. 

While the gambler chose his weapon, Luke sighed from next to him. "I hate this as much as you do, believe me. But we have no choice, we have to or we'll just end up like those poor saps outside. Behind gates." 

"Let's just hope Vincent gets his head bashed in by a fucking Tank or something when we go out into the city, I presume?" He questioned.

"Yeah, that's where we always branch off to. There's always fresh survivors and sometimes supplies, if we haven't stole them all already." Oliver's voice came from behind them. "We should hurry up, the others are waiting for us. And you don't want to see either of them when they're pissed."

They rapidly quickened their pace and made their way to the gates where sure enough, the others stood, safety flicked off their guns and decked from head to toe in bullet proof armour. 

"You always go overkill with the body armour, guys..." Ollie sighed as Vincent unlocked the gates. Nick eyed him carefully and spotted that Vincent was carrying some different supplies today. Ropes, some testing syringes he guessed and some blacked out cloth. He could piece together that this wasn't a _supply run._

Vincent wanted new test subjects. 

Sighing, Nick felt sorry for the poor survivors they would run in to. He knew that Vince was not a man to leave empty handed, they'd probably search all day for one person at his stubbornness. 

They practically marched out of the large steel gates, watching as the survivors behind the gates stared at them with their dead eyes, mocking them, wishing death upon them for taking away their freedom and hope, taking away their lives. 

Nick would've felt guilty, but he didn't, because he didn't do this to _them._

Vincent did, and he was fully aware and content with that fact. Because he was going to do it again, and again, until he got what he wanted. From the story he had been told, it seemed that Vincent was obsessed with the purity of someone, not finding a cure. 

But what did he mean by 'purity'? It all confused him so much. But there was no point in trying to figure out how that sick fucker's mind worked, he just had to focus on the task at hand.

Trying to figure out how he could get away from them. Away from Luke and Ollie if he had to. 

"Alrigh', what are we looking for today, Vince? A helpless soul to torment, or some supplies?" Jerry had such a twisted enthusiasm in his voice, like he was looking forward to getting 'a helpless soul to torment,' he didn't sound as thrilled or interested in a supply run. 

The gambler was silently contemplating going trigger happy with his rifle and shooting them all before booking it out of there, away from them. He could make the base his own and bob's your uncle, the apocalypse bows down to you. 

But of course, it never works like that. 

"We still have the extra supplies Nicholas brought with him, so I need some new subjects for today." Vincent answered, shooting a stray zombie in front of their path as they dove into the city.

"'New subjects'? You have fucking plenty of them back at the base. What do you need them for anyway?" Nick dared to ask. Vincent tensed up at the question, as did everybody else. It was as if Nick had crossed unknown territory and nobody had asked Vincent this before. 

"All these survivors, it's amazing to study the shift from human to infected. From innocence to insanity. Most people assume I am testing for a cure, but no, I see what happens when things go from black to white. As the light drains from their eyes." 

And of course, when Nick thought that Vincent couldn't possible get any more fucked up, he gets proved wrong once again. 

He sighed and kept quiet, taking to nonchalantly flicking the safety on his rifle off and on again. 

"Is that a good enough answer for you, Nick?" Vincent smiled. 

"Too good." He mumbled under his breath. Vincent didn't hear him thankfully, but Luke did. 

After that, it was silent. There was no talking, just the sound of rubble crushing beneath their feet and their laboured breathing as they trekked deeper into the city. 

They shot at a few infected that dared to walk their way. Even Ryan had managed to head shot a Hunter before it made the slightest growl while Vincent had smashed a Spitter's head into the wall. 

It wasn't a pretty sight. 

As they turned a particuarly sharp corner, they spotted a shop. Nick was about to suggest searching it, but Luke stopped him. 

"We always pass this shop. We raided it ages ago, but it still stays in pretty good condition for the apocalypse. The windows aren't smashed, just the door's a bit fucked." He told him.

"I'm surprised nobody would try and search it. Or maybe they do and don't find anything." Nick responded. Suddenly, Tyler held up a hand.

"Hold on." Tyler announced. "Hear that?" 

As they quieted down once more and strained their hearing, they heard serveral voices coming not far in front of them. They shared a look before following to the end of the street and as they were about to turn the corner and the voices got louder, Nick recognised them.

_No...Please, fuck no, please. God damnit don't be them..._

Nobody heard his pleas, because the moment they turned the corner, he took sight of his old friends walking towards the boat dock at the outskirts of the city. Nick turned completely white. 

Vincent laughed maniacally. "Looks like we've got company boys." 

"Let's get 'em." Ryan smirked, readying his rifle. 

"No, wait." Luke stopped him, "There's six of them. We need to play this strategically, this isn't like the one hit wonders we found before, they can take us down as much as we can take them down." 

While they were discussing, Oliver faced Nick. "Shit Nick, you're really pale. You feeling okay?" 

He did not reply, he just focussed on listening to Vincent's plan so he could find a way to counteract it quickly and make his way back to his teammates, his friends, his lover. 

"Aha, they've stopped at the dock. They must be looking for a boat. Let's sneak around the buildings and catch them by surprise. Have your rifle ready and don't shoot unless I give the command to." They all nodded except the gambler, who smirked and his eyes narrowed. He looked livid. 

_Oh, I'm gonna catch you by surprise all right..._

They followed Vincent's orders, they crept around the back of the destroyed buildings, even having to go in a few before they were met at the wooden boat dock. They stood behind the wall a little longer so they could hear their conversation. 

"Damn, no boats, typical. We should keep lookin' y'all, don't wanna get caught near here by a horde or somethin'." Coach mumbled sadly, but he hadn't given up yet completely. 

"I think we should call it a day Coach, the sun is already setting and we need to find somewhere to camp out for the night." Rochelle pointed out and Louis agreed with her. 

"Yeah, let's try and find a safe house or something." 

As they were walking away from the dock, several rifles cocked behind them. "You guys aren't going anywhere." 

The group of six were forced to turn around facing one of the each unknown survivors as they aimed their rifles at one of them. They all pulled out their pistols and Louis with his knife, pointing straight back at them. 

It was only then that Ellis realised just exactly _who_ he was aiming at.

"Ellis..." Nick stared at him in disbelief before he instinctively lowered his gun. Ellis did the same and stared at his lover wide eyed and shocked. 

"Nick...?" He whispered, not even believing his own words. 

"Nick, oh my God!" Rochelle cried out at him. 

"What? What is this?! You know them, Nick?" Tyler shouted at him, keeping his rifle aimed at Coach. His friends looked confused now, they were waiting expectantly for him to say something. _Anything._

 _"_ Traitor!" Ryan and Jerry screamed at him, getting ready to fire. 

Vincent then changed his aim off of Zoey and on to Ellis. Something inside his brain must of triggered though, because he was, dare he say it, eying him up. Not in a weird, perverted way though, in a way that he could use Ellis. 

Like when he had used the pregnant woman.

When he used the newborn baby.

When he used all those survivors. 

That's when Vincent's words drifted through his head. 

_It's amazing to study the shift from human to infected. From innocence to insanity. Most people assume I am testing for a cure, but no, I see what happens when things go from black to white. As the light drains from their eyes._

And he instantly understood why he had shown a particular interest in his lover.

Ellis has a heart of gold, a radiating aura of optimism with him, a loving smile he could shoot at anyone and make their day better than it was. It was strange how Vince could interpret all of this through a simple gaze, but nonetheless, he knew. 

"You’ll add to my collection perfectly..." He smiled evily. 

"That jus’ ain’t right man." Ellis shook his head. 

His lover seemed to shirnk down under his constant glare at him, but kept his pistol at a steady aim at Vincent. A twisted grin appeared on Vince's face. 

"Oh fuck no, you don't." Nick snarled, standing in front of his Southerener and aiming his rifle right at Vincent.

"Nick, wait!" Luke called out to him. 

He pulled the trigger without hesitation. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, the chapter you've all been waiting for...
> 
> Nick is back! ;D And he isn't gonna let these fucked up men kill his group, fuck no. 
> 
> Now, I was originally going to leave this chapter for a while and let Nick be absent for longer, but I don't want to drag his absence out too much. He was lost for about six chapters, which is a good time in my eyes. 
> 
> I also want to start writing about their plan too, as I don't plan on this fic being absurdly long. 
> 
> But there's one more question, where is Caspian? 
> 
> And what will happen next chapter? Will they escape Vincent?
> 
> You'll have to find out ;)


	22. Attacked

Vincent's amused yet terrifying laugh echoed through the air as Nick's gun jammed and no bullets were fired. 

He'd set him up.

"You underestimate me, Nicholas. From the moment you told me about your group I knew you would betray us the second you found them. You fell right into my trap...As did your friends." 

"You sick fucker..." The gambler mumbled.

"Nick's gun may be jammed, but yer forgettin' one thing. _Ours_ ain't." And with those words, Ellis walked from behind Nick and shot Vincent right in the shoulder. 

The man looked startled and pain flickered across his face for a moment before it disappeared and was replaced with fury. He started shooting at Nick and Ellis as they barely dodged the bullets.

After the first shot was fired, all other weapons broke out into fire. Rochelle and Francis were forced to take cover behind a wall as Tyler and Oliver approached them and shot at them from the other side. 

Louis was hiding inside a building covering Zoey who had been shot in the stomach. He had had to drop his knife and let it scatter outside when he carried her to safety. She was breathing heavily and quickly as she feared for her life. The technician placed his two hands on the wound and pulled her against him, trying to keep her alive. 

Coach ran into the building too with Ryan trailing behind him. As soon as Ryan entered however, he immediately aimed at Zoey, eager to finish her off.

Louis quickly rose to his feet and grabbed Ryan by the arm that was holding the gun and twisted it backwards. Ryan yelped in pain and punched Louis in the throat, winding him and making him choke on his breath. 

Louis fell down, wheezing and as Ryan took aim at his head, he was shot in between the eyes by Coach. 

It took Louis a minute to recover from the blow to his neck. He felt his adams apple bobbing up and down in his throat frantically from the hit. "Shit..." Louis coughed, "Thanks, Coach." The coach nodded and they both returned to Zoey's side.

"Y-you guys need to help the others...Please..." Zoey pleaded weakly. The two shook their heads.

"They will be fine, girl, but you're gonna bleed out if we don' get ya some help soon." Coach stated seriously, scrounging around for any supplies. An idea popped into his mind and he began to search Ryan's corpse for any supplies.

"He's right, Zo, just rest for now." Louis' voice was heard in the background. 

He had managed to obtain his rifle, and other smaller weapons, but there was no medical supplies on the man; there was however, body armour which could come in handy for Zoey. He sighed and pulled the body armour off the corpse. He also took his jacket to stop the bleeding.

Coach approached her with the supplies and pushed the jacket against her wound, creating an effective way to stop some of the pain. He then turned to Louis. 

"We need to stay put here with her for a while. Need to make sure she don' bleed out, ya hear? The others will probably find us soon enough." 

Even though Louis didn't exactly agree with those words, basically sitting here and waiting for them to battle it out, he didn't want to lose Zoey. And perhaps his life if he went back there.

So him and Coach stayed put inside safely.

Behind the wall, Rochelle and Francis took turns firing at Tyler and Oliver who were hiding behind similar walls a couple metres away from them. As Rochelle took aim on one side of the wall however, she barely dodged an oncoming bullet that would've ended her on the spot.

"Fuck, these guys have got good aim." She muttered, reloading another mag into her pistol.

"I'll show these fuckers good aim." Francis smirked as he took aim above the wall and fired. The bullet ricocheted off a post however and sprung across the wall, completely missing both of them.

"Fuck me." He mentally face palmed. However, Oliver saw this as his chance and aimed, striking Francis right in the collarbone.

"Argh! Double fuck." He immediately took cover again, his hand reflexively going to his collarbone rapidly as he felt the blood dripping from the wound onto his hand.

"Francis!" Rochelle ducked behind cover again too, pressing her hands against the wound too. She looked at him concerned and frightened as his other hand slowly began to ease up off the pistol. 

Tyler and Oliver laughed grimly before approaching the wall the two were behind, rifles raised and fingers on the trigger. Luke joined them, equally as trigger happy. 

Nick watched the ordeal go down and sighed. Him and Ellis were crouched down behind a pile of sandbags in front of a building. He turned to face Ellis.

"El, I need to go help Ro. Stay here and watch out for Vincent, no doubt he's waiting for a moment to strike. That bastard  will be ready for anything, so keep an eye out okay?" Nick ordered.

"Don't you want me to come an' help?" He asked back, not really agreeing with Nick going out there alone.

"As much as I admire your bravery, champ, I can't let you get hurt. I don't _want_ to let you get hurt. So, just stay here for me, alright?" Nick spoke much softer this time. 

He placed his hand on Ellis' cheek and when the mechanic gave an unsure nod, but a nod nonetheless, he slowly snuck out from behind the sandbags and to the wall Ro and Francis were behind, his deagle fully loaded. 

Ellis was already contemplating going out to help Nick, not wanting to lose him after he'd only just found him but he decided to do as he had told him and stay quiet behind the sandbags. Gunshots echoed in the air all around him as he gripped his pistol so hard his finger tips turned blue.

This was never something he thought would happen, having to kill survivors and not infected. The cannibals could be counted as self defense, but this? This was like an all out war. 

He peered out one side to see Nick had been successful in making his way over to Rochelle and Francis and was covering them both while the reporter tried to stop the biker's bleeding. Luke, Tyler and Oliver had made their way back to their wall and were resuming firing at the others like before. 

A bullet quickly whizzed by his head as he peered out however, and it barely missed him; Jerry was shooting at him. He stood up fully and aimed, quickly shooting Jerry in the forehead as he fell down to the floor. Nick had watched him do so and made sure he was safe once again before he continued helping Ro and Francis. 

As Ellis was about to sit back against the makeshift cover again, a pair of hands wrapped around his mouth and began dragging him behind the back of a boarded up building which led to a dark alleyway. As he was being dragged away from his teammates, his gun slipped out his hands and clattered to the ground as he tried to mumble something to get the others to notice he was in danger.

Over the sound of the gunshots, nobody could hear him. 

He knew who was dragging him, and didn't want them to get away with him. He opened his mouth and bit down on Vincent's thumb hard and he could briefly see blood begin to pour out his thumb nail. 

He immediately let go of Ellis and looked at his thumb intently. The mechanic saw this as an opportunity and elbowed Vince in the stomach, making him bend over, his breathing becoming louder. 

_Nick helped Rochelle and Francis to the building the others were staying in. He then sprinted outside to the sandbags to retrieve Ellis, but he wasn’t there. He looked around frantically, the panic evident on his face._

"You little shit..." He growled, before punching Ellis right in the cheek. It was only then El had noticed that Vince had a ring on, he could feel the metal collide with his cheek and draw blood with a sharp edge as well as going to leave one hell of a bruise. 

Ellis was caught off guard, but that didn't stop him from giving one-hundred and ten percent to fight back. He socked Vincent right in the jaw, making the man bite his tongue in reflex and coating his teeth in the red, murky liquid. 

"I can see the fear in your eyes...Why do you keep fighting?" He slurred creepily which only added to the fear and paranoia El was feeling. It was as if the man could sense every emotion he was feeling. 

Vincent pulled out his pistol and took aim rapidly. The mechanic charged forward at Vincent and closed the space between them, making a grab for the man's weapon, eager to gain possession of it. 

As this happened, Vincent managed to get one hand free and punch Ellis in the face. Vincent's fist managed to catch part of his nose and his top lip. Blood gushed out of his nose immediately and his face tilted back from the contact. His lip busted open and he couldn't help but think how this must've felt for Coach. He didn't stop though and managed to gain possession of the gun. As he did so, Vince pulled out a knife he had been hiding in his pocket. 

"Shit," Ellis mumbled to nobody in particular as blood gurgled down the lower half of his face from his mouth and nose. 

As he had his fingers on the trigger and the barrel pointed directly at Vincent, with surprising strength, the man picked El up by the waist and threw him on his back. He kicked the gun out of his hand and sat on his hips, rendering his legs useless. The knife had flung out of his hand and landed just above the mechanic. 

He wrapped his hands around Ellis' throat and squeezed hard as he began to throttle the boy. The mechanic's hands came up and covered Vincent's, trying to pry his hands off his neck. Vince's hands didn't relent, just squeezed harder until the veins were bulging out of his hands and wrists. 

"You're not going to stop me! None of you are!" He screamed at Ellis as the Southerner's face began to turn white and his eyes became bloodshot from the constriction, his eyes began to roll back the longer this went on. It felt worse than what a Smoker's choking would feel like. He was becoming weak and couldn't struggle any more to get Vincent off of him. 

This was how he was going to die. 

Choked and beaten up by some crazy fuck who only cared about himself. He only hoped the others could be spared the sight of his battered corpse. And even though he knew he was going to die, his hands still fought back. Maybe not as strong, but they still had a grip on Vincent's hands. He was getting weaker and black spots were invading his vision as the seconds ticked by. 

To be honest, he was surprised he had lasted this long a choking as it was. It'd been about a minute so far without breath. He risked a glance on the ground above him and saw the twinkle of light reflecting off of the knife blade. He stopped encircling his hands around Vincent’s and tried desperately to grab the knife handle above him. 

"Giving up, eh?!" Vincent gloated from above him, grinning murderously. "You were no match for me, it's a shame I couldn't use you...You would’ve been my new subject, along with your friends. It didn’t have to be like this.” 

His fingertips were on the handle. 

"I’m still wondering how you’re still alive right now, to be honest." The villainous man said to him. 

He grabbed the handle and let the knife slip into his grasp. 

He threw his arm up and stabbed Vincent right in the neck, he screamed and stopped his attack on Ellis completely; the mechanic used this an opportunity to turn the tables completely, he was now the one straddling Vincent as he stabbed his face over and over unrelentlessly, continuing his assault on the man’s face even when his name was called out by a voice he didn’t recognise at first. Why did they come back for him? He was more than capable of making Vincent’s face a pile of bloody ribbons himself.

"Ellis! Ellis, stop!" He could clearly identify the voice as one of his teammates, as he was right next to him now, his hand on his shoulder before he was trying to pull Ellis off the corpse. 

But he couldn’t stop. He kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing, even as his lover had told him to stop, tried to get him to stop, Ellis couldn’t until Nick grabbed him by the waist and pulled him against him before disarming him of the knife. Still contained in his panicked and distressed state of mind, he struggled against the man behind him, obviously thinking Nick himself was a threat to him. 

"Ellis, it’s okay! It’s me...Look at me."

Nick cupped the sides of his face with his cold, yet comforting hands and looked into his eyes sincerely. The familiar scent of cologne invaded his nostrils as he buried his face deep in his lover’s shoulder. 

They said nothing now, there didn’t need to be any words. Just the comfort of each other, the relief that they were both alive to die another day. Nick did nothing but cling to him tighter. Ellis wanted to say something back to him, tell him how much he missed him, how much he was glad to know he was safe; a simple 'thank you' would be sufficied, but Ellis _couldn't_ talk. 

And it wasn't because of the shock of the situation anymore, not even the fact that he knew he would forever have the image Vincent’s dead body captured in his mind. He physically _couldn't_ talk. 

Vincent had done so much damage to his throat his vocal cords and windpipe had been damaged greatly. His breathing was shallow and slow, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't breathe any better or stable. There was a mixture of black, blue and purple splotches along his neck as well as two red hand marks. He tried to strain his voice to get at least a word out, but the only sound that came out what a high pitched crack and whimper. 

After hearing the sound, Nick immediately pulled away and placed his hands on Ellis' shoulders, leaning close to assess the damage that Vincent had done to him. 

The gambler felt horrible by the sight before him. First off, Ellis' face was bloody and bruised, his blood and Vincent’s, his hands were coated in blood that _wasn’t_ his, but the blood could be wiped off and he could get the bruises an ice pack, even though some of them had already shown on his face. That wasn't as much of an issue, as it could be healed in a couple of days. 

What his main concern was, was Ellis' neck. 

Shit, Vincent really had done a number on him here. The hand marks on his neck were where the bruises were the most, and the skin colour didn't even match the rest of Ellis' body anymore. It was a light pale, but not the normal pale your skin turns when you're sick, this was nearly pure white. Ellis' face was the same colour. The veins in his neck were showing more too and were a darker colour. His eyes were red and bloodshot, you could hardly make out the beautiful blue anymore. This wouldn't heal in a couple of days. This was going to take a while, and they were going to need a doctor for this. 

"Jesus, El, what did he do to you..." He tenderly placed his hands on either sides of his lover's neck, not surprised when he slightly flinched at the first contact. He'd at least expected to get an answer here, but he didn't. He was about to ask why when it finally clicked _why_ in his head. 

"Ellis...Can you talk?" At first, Nick didn't think it would've been that serious. But was he had only came to Ellis' aid a couple of minutes ago; who knows when the mechanic first disappeared behind here? When Vincent pinned him here and did this to him, even though Ellis managed to get the upper hand? 

When he had turned that corner and found his lover stabbing Vincent with such insanity in his eyes, not that he could blame him, he hadn’t seen a speckle of an injury on the boy, except for his deeply, crimson coated hands and Vince’s blood that had flung up on to his face. But now, he could predict Vincent had strangled him before Ellis had acquired the knife, with that much pressure onto his throat, for God knows how long, no wonder Ellis' vocal cords had been damaged.

And bless him, Ellis tried so _damn_ hard to open his mouth and give him an answer, but no words came out, just broken sounds like before. 

Nick felt guilt course through him. This was all his fault. He never should've left Ellis' side when he knew that Vincent had taken an interest in him. It was inevitable this would've happened, yet he left him anyway. 

He should've been there when Vincent took him away. He should've been there when Ellis was choked, he shouldn't have made him fend for himself in such a difficult situation. He should've been there to protect his lover. To protect the one thing he loved in this world. 

And as quick as the guilt had came, it had subsided to allow a burning hot anger to rise up inside him. He turned away from Ellis for a moment, watching his scared, bloodshot eyes follow his movements, the way his bottom lip trembled; and glared at the corpse intently, clenching his fists. 

_You sick fucker. You better be in hell right now, you son of a fucking bitch. You're lucky I gave you the easy fucking way out, because I'd love nothing more than to choke you and see how you fucking like it._

He turned to his lover expecting a sympathetic look, or a pained smile, but he was met with a kiss. And even though he could slightly taste the blood in and on the mechanic's mouth, he let the kiss last a little longer. It was just their soft lips against the others, a more passionate kiss, a kiss to show how much they cared about each other. 

He pulled away shortly after and looked at Ellis again. "Did he punch you in the mouth? You taste like blood." 

The mechanic sighed but nodded, indicating to his busted up lip. He looked so damn fed up. So damn weak. And in so much pain. Hell, he looked even _guilty_ of what he did, but there was still that insane look behind his eyes, as if he didn’t care that he had completely destroyed a man’s face. It pained the gambler to see him like that and he gave him a concerned look. 

"We should go back to the others. All of them are in a building near the dock." Nick met Ellis' worried gaze. "Don't worry, they're fine; well, as fine as bullet wounds go." 

Nick helped his younger counterpart walk back to the building. As they walked on Nick's part, and timidly shuffled on Ellis', they passed all of the other maniacs' corpses on the way. 

As they walked past Vincent, Ellis stopped, he stared, he regretted. He watched the body twitch and spasm with widened eyes, clearly confused as to how he had allowed himself to become such a monster, that he had been able to inflict this much damage to someone, a survivor, like him! 

Nick turned around to see his lover wasn’t following him. He was slightly confused, until he realised what was happening to the mechanic. He was beginning to hyperventilate, go into a delayed state of shock, his hands were shaking so badly. He had to reassure the mechanic now, comfort him more than ever, before Ellis lost his mind.

Nicolas approached him slowly and took Ellis’ shivering hands into his own, not even caring they were soaked in blood, the younger of the two jumped and tensed up from the contact as he looked at Nick from under the brim of his cap. 

"Listen to me, Ellis. You did what you _had_ to do. Don’t let the guilt eat you up inside, okay? I know it’s hard right now...—" He trailed off. God, he wasn’t good at comfort, never was, especially for someone who was having a mental breakdown in front of him. But this was _Ellis_ he was talking about here, he’s like every other human being, he has a _breaking point_ ; and Vincent was that breaking point. Nick may not be good at comfort, but for Ellis? He can definitely change that.

He just needs to know the truth. 

"I can’t sit here and let you do this to yourself okay? Because I _need_ you, Ellis. You make this whole apocalypse worth while, you make me a better person. And I know it’s difficult, but you must put this behind you. _You’re not a killer, Ellis. You’re not a bad person."_ He emphasised, he had to make El understand this. "But you did what you absolutely had to. Don’t think anything else, alright." Nick’s worried and soft tone had completely surprised Ellis, despite his current state. His breathing became slow again instead of rapid and hectic, he grasped Nick’s hands back. 

"Do you understand?" 

He nodded. Yes, he understands; it’s just something he _had to do._  Nick wouldn’t lie to him. At that moment, Nick was the only person keeping Ellis sane, if Nick hadn’t been there, it was obvious the mechanic would’ve lost his mind right there and then. 

He gently coaxed Ellis to leave the body behind him and get back to the others. Without letting go of his hand, Nick lead his traumatised Ellis to the building. 

Jerry had been shot a while ago it seemed, they hadn't seen much of him in the fight, but someone had taken care of him early. The blood had all poured out of the gunshot wound right on his eye and his arms were spread out on his sides. A crow was already pecking at his face. 

Luke, Tyler and Oliver were all in a pile together. Oliver was strawn out across the ground laying a pool of blood while Luke was lying on his front next to him, a bullet wound in the back of his neck. At least the brothers had died together, although they didn’t deserve it at all. Tyler was slightly to the right of them on his side, blood pouring out his stomach still. 

Nick couldn't help but feel slightly wounded by Luke and Oliver's deaths. They had shown him nothing but empathy and respect the first day he had met them. They had helped him, shown him the basics and generally been good teammates. They even told him the rights and wrongs of the base they stayed in with Vincent, though it was going against the leader's grain. 

They reached the building and Nick let go of Ellis to open the door. The mechanic moved slowly, frightened; like a scared child, as he stared at his bloody hands solemnly.

"It’s okay, we’re safe now." Nick spoke to him comfortingly. The others turned to the sounds of his voice. 

"Oh my God! Nick, what happened to him?!" Rochelle was by their sides in an instant, pulling them both into a hug. She pulled away and looked at Ellis, sadly. She was stunned by the marks on his throat and how painful they must be. His eyes were so gone. 

"Vincent happened. That crazy fuck managed to drag him into an alleyway and choke him, but believe me, you should see the other guy." He indicated to the mechanic’s bloody hands. 

"Holy shit, that isn’t your blood...Right?" Rochelle’s eyes widened. 

Nick whispered in Rochelle’s ear so El couldn’t hear, "Let’s just say, don’t give Ellis a knife. Ever." Rochelle nodded slowly and made a mental note. 

"Boy, you okay?" Coach made their way over to them worryingly and looked over Ellis. 

The mechanic didn’t respond to any of them. He didn’t make an expression, even a peep, he was _scarred_ at what he had let himself do.

"Coach, Ellis can't talk." Nick stated sternly, hiding his remorse under his poker face.

"...Nick, what do you mean 'He can't talk'?" Louis joined them. 

Nick rolled his eyes. "I mean, he can't fucking talk. Vincent damaged his vocal cords badly." 

"Oh sweetie..." Rochelle looked at him sorrowfully. "This isn't good. We have three injured now." 

"I—..." He tried, but the sound was nearly silent, and his broken voice was quiter than when he first attempted to speak.

"Don't strain your voice even more, Ellis." 

"You're right, Nick...He really can't." Louis mumbled morosely. 

"Girl, Zoey an' Francis can be up on their feet soon, and Ellis at least is too, I think it'll be alrigh' for now." Coach spoke to her. 

"I know, Coach, but we hardly had enough medical supplies to patch them up in the first place." Rochelle muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and taking a deep breath. "We don't have much left." 

"We'll give the rest of the medical supplies left to Ellis, Zoey and Francis should be okay without them for now. We'll rest here for as long as people need and we'll find supplies when we need them." Louis suggested his plan. It seemed as good as any so there were no protests. 

Rochelle passed the remains of the medical supplies in a green first aid kit box to Nick. 

"How are these going to help him? He isn't bleeding heavily Rochelle, this is useless." The gambler grumbled.

"Nick, I'm not a doctor, okay? I don't know how we can help Ellis' main injury right now. The best we can do for him is to clean the blood off his face and hands and let him relax his throat for a while. I hate seeing him in pain as much as you do, Nick..." 

"It's good to have ya back, Nick." Coach grinned at him and Louis muttered something along the same lines to him. 

He waved them off and opened the box and assessed the supplies inside. There were a few bandages, some white tape for covering cuts, a few anti-septic wipes and sewing kit. 

Nick was thankful he wouldn't have to use the sewing kit this time. 

"And, Nick?" Rochelle called out again to him, quieter this time.

"Yeah?" 

"I missed you...I missed you a lot. We all did." She walker over to him and gave him a hug. He returned it and looked at her. 

"Likewise." He simply mumbled, not wanting to have too much of a reunion with his teammates. 

He made Ellis sit against the wall and kneeled in front of him. He ripped open a packet of antiseptic wipes and carefully and lightly dabbed at the blood above the boy's top lip and on the side of his cheek. He then wiped the antiseptic wipe across his chin where some blood had dried. 

Once he had cleaned his lover's face of any blood, he cut off a tiny bit of tape and placed it on the cut on Ellis' cheek. Above the cut and slightly under his eye was bruised and a purple, black-ish colour. 

"He's got one hell of a punch, huh?" He whispered gently and sympathetically. All Ellis could do was nod and agree with him. 

He cleaned the mechanic's busted lip too before he placed any other supplies back in the box and closed it up. He set it down next to him and checked over the mechanic once more. Finally, even if he was a little hesitant at first, he cleaned the blood off of Ellis’ hands. 

The colour had came back in his face again, but not completely. He wasn't as pale as before, but it was definitely still noticeable. His breathing was laboured and heavy, his eyes were still slightly bloodshot but the gambler was sure that would disappear in the morning, and his throat—Well, it didn't look too good. It hadn't improved from when Nick had found him in the alleyway. There was nothing he could do for his throat injury. He could only take the advice Rochelle had given him and let him relax his throat muscles.

He sat against the wall next to Ellis and wrapped an arm around his back and rested the other on the boy’s knee. The mechanic turned on his side and leant into him, resting his head on Nick’s shoulder. He let the boy get comfortable and he adjusted his grip around him. He heard Ellis sigh contently despite all the pain he must be in and soon enough Nick drifted off into a slightly unpleasant rest. 

Ellis didn’t close his eyes. He couldn’t. Because all he would see...

...Was Vincent’s body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ho, boy. This was a bitch to write. I'm so glad I got it done though! :D
> 
> I started writing this at exactly 21:52pm. I finished it at 00:03. DEDICATION. 
> 
> I'm gonna be honest, describing El's and Vincent's fight physically pained me. I felt so bad for Ellis. He's our little cinnamonbun.


	23. Reunited

"I didn't know Nick and Ellis were that close. Then again, it does seem to add up now..." Louis whispered to Coach and Rochelle, gesturing to the two males sleeping against the wall, cuddling with each other. The three were sitting late at night talking. 

Rochelle giggled, "I'm so surprised you didn't notice by how they acted around each other. They're always by each other's side and always helping each other. I was the first one to know." 

"As long as Nick doesn't hurt the boy, I'm alrigh' with it. It ain't like everybody else in this damn team hasn't got a lover." Coach guffawed softly. 

Rochelle's eyes suddenly became gentle yet serious. "Coach, I know for a fact Nick would never hurt Ellis. _He_ is the one who got us all in this building safe from Vincent, then hauled ass back _alone_ to get Ellis. And to think, it's glad he did. I say they deserve the rest they're getting right now, they've obviously missed each other dearly." 

"So is that why Ellis became sad lately? Because he thought Nick was dead?" Louis questioned. "It all makes sense now!" 

"Shush, keep your voice down. Don't wake them up. But yeah, that's why El probably took his anguish out on Coach. You can't really blame him now..." Rochelle mumbled to them. 

"Hell, I initiated the fight, I'm the one to blame, girl. But honestly, he’s been nice to me lately, we’ve both forgotten about it..." Coach explained. 

"Well, that’s good! It didn’t seem like that a couple of days ago, though. But you shouldn’t have suggested leaving people behind." Louis spoke to him honestly. 

"Hey, so did Zoey, come to think of it!" Ro interjected. 

"Yeah...But she’s young and thought she was doing the right thing. Plus she doesn’t even know Nick that well." Louis defended her.

"I guess." Secretly, Rochelle didn’t think that, but she didn’t want to start an argument right now.

Across the room, the two men weren't as oblivious to the conversation as the others thought. In fact, they were awake and listening intently to every given detail. Well, Nick mostly was, Ellis just refused to meet his eyes every time he looked at him.

_‘Took his anguish out on Coach’?_

Coach sighed and dragged his gloved hand down his face, "I know what y'all mean, but I was tryin' to do what was best for the team. I didn' mean to start the figh' I did. An' I definitely didn' mean to start a punchin' match." 

"It's alright now, Coach," Ro smiled at him reassuringly. "Though at first I didn't agree with either of your actions, at least you two are good around each other, I suppose." 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Through the dim light in the room, they looked up from their sitting places on the floor to see Nick had gotten up and was waiting for an answer from one of them. 

Fuck, what were they meant to say? 

"I'm waiting." He added as the silence dragged on. In the background, the reporter could see Ellis looking the exact same as Coach was; both not wanting to recall the memory of hitting each other. They both were obviously disappointed with their actions. 

"Now, Nick...It isn't as serious as you probably think it is. We solved it ages ago, and it's all fine now." Louis explained.

"You don't sound so sure." His eyes narrowed. He looked over the three of them and stopped on Coach. "Christ, Coach, what happened to your lip?" 

_Oh shit. Is it still that noticeable?_

Rochelle sighed. Someone was going to have to answer, so she decided she'd be the one to do it. "Let's just say, Nick, that Ellis and Coach had a disagreement." 

" _What?—"_ He was about to continue but Coach cut him off. 

"Nicholas, I punched the young'un first, and he punched me back, which is completely understandable. We've already solved it. Don'cha go worryin'." 

"I disappear and you guys beat on each other?" Nick sighed. He turned around to see Ellis was still sitting against the wall, he was going to have to talk to him about this. He undoubtedly had heard their conversation. "You should really have somebody check that out though, Coach." 

"Nick's right, we don't want it to cause any more pain in the long run." Louis agreed. 

"It's already stopped bleedin', not much we can do for it now, y'all." Coach pushed their concern aside. Louis and Rochelle kept bothering him about it however.

In the background, Zoey groaned as she awoke. She writhed around on her makeshift bed, moaning in pain. She had managed to doze off for a couple of hours, then rolled around onto her wound and couldn't get comfortable after that. So, she gave up sleeping altogether. 

Even though she was sure she shouldn't be moving yet, since she had been shot in the stomach, she slowly got to her feet and scanned the room. She spotted Francis sleeping not far from her and the other four all talking together. 

She was about to panic when she couldn't find Ellis, but soon enough found him sitting not too far away from her. She made her way over to him and decided to see if he was okay. 

The college student lowered herself down next to the mechanic and nudged him with her arm. He turned to face her and forced a small smile for only a second. She frowned.

"Are you okay?" She asked him. He didn't give an answer, because he couldn't. 

Instead, he shrugged, fifty-fifty pain it seemed. And to be honest, it was quite true. The pain in his throat was unbearable of course, but it wasn't dragging him down, as such. It just meant it would be hard to breathe, eat, drink and talk. And he could already feel his throat constricting upon itself. 

No, fuck what he did before, he definitely _wasn't_ okay. He suddenly coughed and his throat panged, he could almost feel his muscles tensing excruciatingly tight as he spluttered. His hand instinctively went to his throat and grasped softly as he took in shaky breaths again.

The sound had alerted the others, they had turned to face him and were watching him with concerned faces. 

"You okay, Ellis?" Rochelle called out to him. It was a pointless question really, he wouldn't be able to answer anyway, would he?

"And Zoey, you shouldn't be moving yet!" Louis tried to disguise his jealousy as Zoey was talking to Ellis yet again by leading her back to her bed again. Then again, why was he jealous anymore? Nick and Ellis were already together they'd found out, so what was the point? 

El wished he could scream at them how much it fucking hurt. When he breathed in, it felt like somebody was stabbing him in the neck repeatedly. When he coughed, it felt like someone was burning the inside of his damn windpipe. When he tried to talk, it felt like somebody was physically ripping his voicebox from his oesophagus. 

"Of course he isn't 'okay', Rochelle." Nick began making his way over to him and gently pulled his hand from his throat. "You should try and get some rest, El. It won't hurt as much if you're not awake." Ellis drew in another shaky breath before nodding and lying down on the floor. It was brittle and cold, but he'd have to try and fall asleep somehow.

Nick shook off his suit jacket and laid it over the boy. He fell asleep a lot quicker. 

When he made sure El was asleep and fine, he walked back to the others who were still sitting, chatting to each other. He took a seat and took to absentmindedly adjusting the rings on his fingers as he listened to the conversation. 

"So, Nick, you and Ellis, huh?" Louis smiled at him, showing he wasn't judging or anything. 

"Oh Christ, do we _really_ have to talk about this?" He groaned. Louis laughed quietly to not wake up the others. 

"I'm just saying, you guys really do balance each other out, to think of it. You're an asshole, Nick, and Ellis definitely isn't an asshole." Zoey called across the room from her bed. 

"And, not to mention it's adorable!" Rochelle jumped in, giggling. Zoey joined in too. 

"Coach. Help. Me." Coach sat awkwardly as the others practically fangirled over the couple, even Louis was smiling. He cleared his throat and tried to think of something to change the subject. 

"Hey, Nick, where's Caspian?" That made everybody fall silent. Nick glared daggers into the football Coach. 

_Not the help I meant, Coach._

The gambler sighed. What was he meant to tell them? If he told them the truth, they might be a bit annoyed at him, but he already belonged to a damn group of cannibals; they couldn't care that much. If he made up a lie, the question is, how long could he keep up that lie? The truth would eventually come out. 

And even though being a con artist made Nick an impeccable liar, he decided to tell the truth to his fellow teammates. 

"We were running back to the house we were taking refuge in with the supplies we'd found...When the Tank showed up. It managed to grab Caspian and toss him around like he was  weightless. If I had kept on running however, the Tank would've stormed away with the brat and I would've reached you guys." The others listened carefully to every word Nick spoke.

"But I didn't. I ran back for him and dragged his ass to a shack. We hid inside and I laid him on a table before trying to look for any supplies. When I came back, I had nothing, and I checked his pulse. He was gone, and I couldn't help him. So I left." 

"At least you tried to help him, Nick. That's all we would've asked of you. What did you do after that?" Rochelle questioned. 

"Stayed alone for a couple of days. I had to trek through a horde at once point and use Caspian's stupid idea. Surprisingly, it worked and I lived, luckily. I found a good safe house on the other side, then Vincent and his assclowns decided to show up and stole all the shit from it. He said I could join him and keep the supplies, or die." He explained the story briefly.

"So, naturally, I joined up with him, but I never trusted that crazy bastard. At his base, he tested on fucking _survivors._ And he wasn't even looking for a damn cure. He had survivors locked behind gates outside his house of terror. It's hard to think, they're still there. And nobody is going to set them free." The gambler sighed, for once feeling sorry for all those people. 

"How big is this base, Nick?" Louis asked him.

"Huge. Probably three times the size of this shit hole building we're in right now." He responded.

Rochelle began to catch on to the implication of Louis' questions. "Does it have lots of supplies?" 

"...Are you suggesting we go back? Are you fucking insane?" The gambler spat. 

"Well...If it isn't inhabited by anyone anymore, why shouldn't we? We can set all those other surivors free and on their way while we live in the base for a while. If it has lots of supplies, Nick, we can't let them go to waste. Who knows the next time we'll have food and water." Rochelle explained. 

"Nick, son, we need to take the risk this time." Coach spoke to him, planting his hand on his shoulder.

"But wait, weren't we going to find a boat? That was our plan, wasn't it? To get out the city?" Louis asked, looking at them all expectantly. 

"What are the odds of us finding a boat though? I say, if we can stay at Vincent's base for a while, once we do run out of supplies there, maybe we can look for a boat afterwards." The reporter explained.

"And, even if we did sail to another city...They'd test on us for the infection there, and if they found out we were all immune, it'd be..." Zoey whispered from her bed. She didn't want to say the rest of her sentence, she'd already been through what she was about to say. 

"Zoey, that won't ever happen again. I won't let it happen to you." Louis gave her a reassuring smile, even though he wasn't too sure himself. 

She smiled at him. Zoey wouldn't admit it to him just yet, but she felt safe around Louis, comforted in his prescence. There was just something about him that made Zoey feel like nothing bad would happen to her. Maybe it was his optimism and kindess, which would explain why she pinned after Ellis at first sight—they did have similar personalities of course, or maybe it was his strive to make sure the others would get out alive. 

Just like Bill did for them. 

"If everybody is up and ready for tomorrow, and not in too much pain of course, then maybe we can head to Vincent's place and let them rest up there. If not, we can always stay another day." Ro suggested. 

Coach nodded. "I agree with Ro, let's all get some rest and get ready for tomorrow if y'all are up to it." 

"I still don't think it's a good idea." Nick murmured.

"What is a good idea these days, Nick?" Ro shot back. 

"Touché." 

With that, they all laid down on the floor either next to their lovers or randomly sprawled out across the floor. The breeze in the room was cool but welcoming. It was undoubtedly going to be humid tomorrow which would stand for difficult fighting circumstances. The concrete floor was uncomfortable, but they'd have to get as much rest as they could for tomorrow.

* * *

 

 

Francis was the first to be awake that morning as he had slept the longest out of all of them. He arched his back as he stretched and sat up, grumbling as he accidentally put a bit too much weight on his wound when he raised his arm. 

When Rochelle had told him the bullet had gone straight through, he was quite surprised. He was shot near the collarbone and for a moment the biker feared the bullet would've gone through the bone, but thankfully it hadn't. 

Speaking of Ro, he looked to his side to see the reporter fast asleep next to him. Truthfully, he had felt a bit bad when he had upset her the other day. He didn't mean anything by it of course, but he shouldn't have joked about their teammates. 

"Good to see ya up, Francis." Coach's voice came from in front of him. He spotted the football coach perched against a wall, grinning at him. 

"Still hurts like shit." He complained. 

"Francis, you whinge more than a damn woman does, and this is coming from a woman!" Rochelle laughed from next to him, all of their talking must've woken her up. If not, then the early sunlight resonating throughout the room definitely would. 

"Hey!" 

"What, girl's just tellin' the truth." Coach joined in the laughter. 

"Whatever." He grouched.

"Oh great, you actually woke up. How amazing." Nick celebrated sarcastically. Francis turned to face him, snarling.

"Good thing I did, because now I get to kick your ass." Francis smirked. 

Nick was about to send another snide remark back when Rochelle jumped in to do her duty of stopping arguments and fights once again. 

"Francis, Nick; please. Let's just wake the others up and get moving as quick as we can." 

Ellis had woken a while ago but nobody had noticed of course, all he could do was stay silent. It only made him wonder, if he was grabbed by an infected, how would he call for help? He didn't try to let that thought phase him, though it encircled in his mind for some while. 

It'd been a couple of hours and he already missed talking. It's a shame he'd have to get used to this for a while. 

All they had to do now was wake up Louis and Zoey. Once they were awake, Louis helped Zoey up and they all collected their weapons from the table they'd laid them on last night. 

All of their pistols were still there and the rifle. He had swapped his jammed rifle for Vincent's, so he knew this one would fire. It was peculiar how Vince knew he would leave them, and he knew which weapon to jam...Or maybe Luke set him up too? 

There was no point in dwelling on the past though however, he was back with his team now, and he was perfectly fine with that. He'd take these guys any day instead of Vincent's. 

They all picked up a gun and got ready to head out. The reporter had decided to take the green first aid box they'd found just in case of emergencies while they were travelling back. 

Once they all stepped out into the outside world again, Nick tried to relocate the way him and Vincent had came from. Then again, all he would have to do is follow the path of destruction they'd left. 

As they wandered down the pathways, a few stray infected's had gathered there overnight. They were quickly taken care of and they kept walking. 

"How far do you think it is, Nick?" Louis asked from behind him. 

"It isn't far for sure, we found you guys almost immediately after leaving." He answered before they fell into silence once again. 

They rounded a few more street corners before they encountered the shop they had raided before, with Vincent’s body straight outside. They all stopped and looked at the all ready decaying, beaten face of the man. Rochelle looked at Nick, remembering his words from yesterday, before she looked towards Ellis who looked taken aback by the corpse.

 _Jesus Christ._ She thought. 

They decided to keep going straight on without a word, the shop signalling they were nearly there. 

After a couple of minutes of walking, a quiet growl and a choked screech resonated in the background. 

"Sounds like a Hunter." Nick called out to them quietly, falling into step beside Ellis just in case. 

"Spitter too." Zoey told them. "Be careful." 

Straight after Zoey had finished her sentence, the Hunter pounced down from a roof and landed in front of them. As they aimed and were about to break into fire, it jumped behind them and onto Louis. 

"GET IT OFF!" He shouted as it made a slash for his chest. 

As El was closest to Louis, he shoved the Hunter off him and bashed him in the head with his pistol, stunning it momentarily. He quickly aimed down his sights and shot the infected in the face. It fell to the floor, dead. 

Since Ellis had reacted quickly, the Hunter had only managed to get a scratch on Louis' chest. As Coach was helping him to his feet however, the Spitter appeared and spat her green acid at Louis who was only just on his feet. 

The acid burnt through the soles of Louis' and Coach's shoes and fizzed up the ends of their trousers. They rapidly ran out of the acid's reach and watched Francis kill it.

"Damn, goo!" The football coach grunted, looking down at his feet, annoyed. 

"There." Nick was pointing at the huge building with two large gates outside, looking much like pens for animals, just like Vincent treated them like. 

They quickly scrambled to the building and Nick entered the passcode to unlock the main gates. Once inside, he ambled his way to one of the large gates with the survivors still behind it. 

"S-sir! Please help us, sir!" A middle aged man called out to him, his face was practically pressed against the gate. 

The others felt sick. The survivors trapped behind the gate were pale and nearly anorexic. They had been starved by Vincent undoubtedly. They'd been tortured by him. Been scarred by him. Been tormented by him. 

But at least now, they'd be free. Free to have a slither of a chance to escape the epidemic. 

Nick bashed the lock off the gate with the butt of his rifle. It clattered to the ground and he swung the gate open. People ran out, some thanking and even hugging him. He would've offered them some supplies, but they'd seen enough of this place already; so he ordered them to go to the city where they could find some supplies themselves. 

He did the same for other gate and watched those prisoners sprint out with equally as much happiness and stamina, though their bodies must've been run down and tired. 

After they had all been set free, Nick locked the main gate to stop any infected coming in. He pushed open the front base door and held it for his teammates. 

"It really isn't pleasant here." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a couple of days late, I got caught up with work, playing L4d2 and sleeping lol. I'm lazy if I want to be :]
> 
> Anywhoo, not much to say other than this lol. I hope you enjoyed and have a great day/night! <3


	24. UPDATE

I don't normally do update chapters, I just add all the information to my next notes box on the next chapter. But I feel the need to do this as I want to explain to you guys why there has been a huge wait for Chapter 24. 

First off, I had a concussion. I fucked the left part of my face up, it was bruised badly but now it's nearly healed I can start working on my writing again. As it stands right now, I spent probably about a month recovering which was through October, and when it reached November I did start writing Chapter 24 as a draft, but it will probably not have much editing or rewrites. 

As well as this, I have slowly been showing less interest in Left 4 Dead 2. I still love the game and all, but I'm moving into different fandoms such as The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf, Marvel and others. It just became a bit boring but I still want to try and finish the story. 

Right now, Chapter 24 is probably a quarter of the way done, so far it is 1428 words. I do plan to continue it, I have  **not** given up on this story so please don't think I have. I know it's been a while, but I hope I can get this new chapter out by next week. 

Another thing, the newest chapter will probably be just a filler. There won't be much drama or tension because it's mostly just them exploring the base, seeing if it's safe etc. But, on the other hand, this gives me time to add more character development and more romance considering most of this fic has been more about the apocalypse rather than developing characters and relationships throughout. 

So, to conclude, the chapter will be coming out shortly, there will be lots of relationship development and I am very sorry to keep you waiting for this long. I do have to thank you for all the support on this story too, your comments always put a smile on my face and give me the inspiration to write more chapters. 

Thanks for sticking with me so long through this madhouse of a fanfiction haha. <3 


	25. A New Face

"Nick, it can't be that bad—" Rochelle cut herself off as she examined the room they had just entered.

In terms of cleanliness and safety, it was fine. The doors and windows were barricaded, the lights were still working, there were no cracks in the walls and in general it was well maintained. It was what was in the room that scared them.

It seemed that the gambler had welcomed them to the part of the building the labs were at.

"Forget what I said, what is this place?" She continued after a pause.

"This is where Vincent tested on people." Nick answered as he led them down a corridor.

The infected Vince had mutilated were still trapped behind the bars along the corridor, and it only occured to them when one made a swipe for Zoey's face; their long talons just barely missing her. She jumped back abruptly before peeking through the bars once the infected had calmed down.

It looked very similar to a witch; crimson, glowing eyes; long, scaley fingers and nails, the boney anorexic body; except it made no noise and had sharp fangs protruding from it's lips. No sobbing, no screaming, just silence and as for the fangs, they were a mucky brown mixed with the stain of blood and pretty much sitting on her chin they were that long.

"What is this thing?" She whispered to them, trying to not alert this thing's attention again. Francis gave one hard look at it before shooting it with no remorse.

"Francis! What the hell?" The teenager gasped as she looked at the biker reload his pistol.

"Zoey, did you really expect us to keep that bitch alive when she nearly took your face out?" Louis asked her incredulously.

“But...Maybe we could’ve saved her. With all the equipment Vincent has here, maybe we could—“

“Don’t waste your damn breath. Do you honestly think Vince would’ve tried to help anybody who wasn’t himself? That assclown cared about himself and only himself. There is no cure here.” Nick scolded her as they kept walking down the lab corridors.

"You don't know that, Nick!" She yelled at him. Nick fully turned around and walked right up to Zoey, looking down at her with his eyes narrowed.

"I do fucking know that, kid. You are so stupid, you believe that fuck would go out of his way to try and _help_ people when he was the one who _did_ this to these people? And not to mention, what he did to Ellis, you and Francis. He shot you both and nearly killed him, so let me tell you again, and get it through your fucking head this time. He. Doesn't. Care." 

Zoey became eerily quiet. She knew Vincent was fucked up, as did they all, but was he this messed up to do this to innocent people? She wanted so badly to help them, to restore the light in their eyes, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to; their light was already burnt out.

"That's enough, Nick." Louis defended the teenager. The gambler rolled his eyes and kept walking ahead. 

"Where are we headin’, Nick?" Coach asked the gambler.

"I guess you could call it the main part of this building. I doubt any of us want to see the labs any more than we already have." He responded.

“Wait, will these labs have any medical supplies? Zoey and Francis could really use some right about now. There might be something to help Ellis’ throat too.” Rochelle piped up.

“Only time I was in the labs was when Vincent tested me for the infection. Other than that, I haven’t been here much. But I suppose we could check.” The gambler spoke back to them.

“Jus’ choose a lab room and have a look around y’all. Make sure nothin’ ya pick up is toxic or anythin’.” Coach ordered.

The mechanic wandered into one of the lab rooms. The putrid smell of blood immediately filled his nostrils and he had to resist the urge to gag. It was close to a simple hospital room, except there was a wooden, splintered chair in the middle of the room. It had straps on the arm rests and around the leg posts; he could only assume this was where Vincent had tested on his poor subjects, unless he had more of these types of rooms. Next to the chair was a rather large desk splattered with blood and had various equipment on it. There were syringes, knives, different sized scalpels and a pair of medical scissors.

The scalpels were either coated in murky, dry blood or they even had small pieces of skin or body parts on them. Yeah, he didn’t want any contact with that.

The syringes had different colour liquids in them; some were purple, some green and some black, not typical shot colours. Maybe these determined the different mutations people acquired from them. He picked one up and examined it between his fingers, making sure the needle was pointing up and away from his skin. There were footsteps slowly coming from behind him.

“Careful you don’t poke yourself with that.” Nick’s voice behind him scared him shitless, he nearly jumped out his skin at the voice.

He turned to face his lover and set the syringe back down on the table. Nick walked towards him holding a bottle of painpills. He stared at them, unsure. Yeah, he was totally going to be able to get these down his throat. He huffed as the gambler places the bottle in his palm. 

“You think you can get these down or not? There isn’t anything else that could take away the pain otherwise, or help your neck get better, El.” He asked him softly. Ellis sighed deeply before taking the pill bottle and he gave Nick a look of dread before he reluctantly unscrewed the bottle cap and shook a pill out on to his hand.

He placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it dry. It definitely hurt, he could feel the new pain waves spiking through his throat, but if it helped him in the long run, he’d take them any day.

“Feel any better?”

“I really—...hope those weren’ poisonous—or anythin’.” Ellis managed to ground out. Of course he didn’t sound normal and his voice was still broken, but at least he got some words out.

Nick scoffed. “You know I’d check them before I’d give them to you. At least you’re talking again, even if you still don’t sound too good.” The gambler gave one look at the lab room and contorted his face in disgust. “Let’s go see if the others found anything.”

El gave him a nod before they left the room and walked till they saw the others waiting at the end of the corridor for them.

“You guys find anything useful?” Louis asked them.

“I found a bottle of pills and I’ve given them to El; all we could find.” Nick told him.

”Me and Zoey found a couple of bandages, but that’s it. Also found a weird mutated Smoker.” Rochelle muttered the last bit.

“Let’s just hope none of these fucking mutants get out. I say we kill ‘em all.” Francis proposed.

“Francis! No, we can’t do that!” Zoey gasped sympathetically.

“For fuck’s sake, why not, Zoey?!” He groaned.

“Zoey, we can’t exactly keep them alive and in pain much longer—“ Ro tried.

”Maybe we can help them though?” Louis jumped in.

“We can’t help them, God damnit!”

“Oh Christ, here they go.” The gambler mumbled.

“ENOUGH!” Coach bellowed at them all; you could hear a pin drop. “We can’t help these folks in the state they’re in now, no matter if you think you can, Zoey. We should put them out of their misery.”

“I can’t kill anybody else...” The teenager turned away from them and faced the wall solemnly. “Nick, where are the rooms in this place?”

Nick grumbled under his breath and refused to answer for a split second. Teenagers these days. Coach gave him a look. “Upstairs and on the right.”

She began walking off towards the direction of the stairs, though Nick doubted she even knew where those were. “I’ll go with her.” Louis announced.

Nick began leading them to the main room. “This is what this place does to people, believe me.”

“...What do you think happened to her? She was fine before we came here, besides the shooting of course.” Rochelle pointed out.

“Might’ve seen somethin’ in one of those rooms.” Coach suggested.

“More than likely...” She sighed. “Maybe she’s just a bit tired and a bit fed up. Girls get like that.”

They reached the main room where the armoury was sectioned off on one side of the room and the generators were forming the electricty to power the building. There was a seating area and the stock crates of food and other supplies were stacked up against the walls. The cameras were positioned in the top corners of the giant room and were aiming at the emergency exits situated on the two furthest away walls.

“This room alone would probably be bigger than any of our safehouses. Vincent was lucky for this place.” Rochelle commented.

“He isn’t very lucky anymore.”

"Yeah, he's a lucky  _dead_ guy." Francis added with a roll of his eyes. 

"If anything, he’s lucky I gave him the easy way out. I wouldn’t mind giving that fucker a slow death after what he’s done to innocent people, and what he did to you guys." Nick clenched his fists. 

"Why did you join up with him in the first place? I mean, it lead us to you of course, but if you knew what he was like then... why?" Ro asked Nick.

"I had to. It was that or death."

"What do you mean?" She replied. 

"When I had found another safehouse, I was there for a couple of hours before they showed up. I knew Vincent before the shity apocalypse, and he is a manipulative, cunning prick. If I hadn’t joined him, he would’ve robbed me, taken me back here against my will or killed my anyhow. And personally I’d rather not become one of these infected in this place."

"I guess you made the right decision then." Coach said. 

"After what happened, I’m not so sure if I did." He was right, but he couldn’t change it, but maybe he could’ve made it different.

Nick wasn’t so accustomed to dwelling on the past, but what if he had hid from Vincent back at the safehouse? They might’ve looted the place, but maybe they wouldn’t find him, and he’d be able to roam free once they were gone.

However the question is: would Vincent and his group find his friends before he did? Would he not be there to help them, and be completely unbeknownst to where they were after that? Would he be forced to think they had died tragically, and forced to suffer it for the rest of his zombie-filled days? Would he even get that far? 

Like he said, he wasn’t used to dwelling on the past, so he quickly forgot it and changed the subject. 

"What were you guys doing at the docks anyway?" 

"We came up with a plan to get away from here for good, not that we really know what state we’re in now but...We were hoping to find a working boat for all of us, a map to know where to go then we would come and look for you and Cas so we could all get out together." Rochelle explained. 

"I still can’t believe you just left that kid, man. That’s colder than you, Colonel Sanders." Francis shook his head. 

"I did what I had to, greasy pig. I wasn’t going to try and save a dead kid." 

"Nick already told us what happened, just drop it, Francis." Coach stopped the biker. 

The group was quiet for a moment. 

"So...What now then?" 

"We should get some shut eye  _all of us._ I reckon it should be safe enough for tonight, at least." Ro suggested. 

"Baby girl's right, we should rest up and figure out what we're gonna do in the mornin'. Nicholas, show us to the rooms?" Together they all made their way to the stairs and down the corridors to find the rooms. 

* * *

 

Upstairs wandering among the various hallways and corridors was Zoey and Louis. The male had his arm securely wrapped around the teenager's shoulders as she occasionally mumbled or sobbed something. She'd broke down a while ago, when she tried to run from Louis and find some enclosure for herself; she hadn't been successful and now Louis had taken it upon himself to find out what was wrong and comfort her when they could find a resting place.

"I-I can't..." Zoey nearly collapsed in his arms as another fit of sobs erupted from her lips and tears streamed down her face. What was wrong with her? Louis had never seen her so down before, she always had a joke with them, saw the good side and fought for all of them. She was young yes, but that didn't mean she was any less capable than the rest.

Down the alleyway, Louis saw a unoccupied room and nudged Zoey's shoulder, he indicated to the room to see if she would want to sit and tell him about what had happened. She gave a stiff but curt nod and they headed for the slightly opened door. 

When they reached the threshold of the doorway, the female shrugged herself from the technician's grasp and told him to give her a minute alone. He reluctantly gave her the time she needed, he just hoped she wouldn't do anything rash while he wasn't by her side.

Zoey shuffled her way into the room and shut the door behind her, it closed with an audible 'creak' sound. The room was pitch black, but she could visible make out the outline of the bed in the corner. She sat on the messily made bed and drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, sobbing and letting her anguish pour out while she had a moment alone. 

Across the room however, a shotgun cocked and she saw a small figure come into view, a flashlight was quickly shined in her face and she was temporarily blinded. The person's face behind the flashlight was coated in darkness and you couldn't make out any features, except for their petite, smaller frame holding the light and the shotgun. She was about to panic and call out for Louis when the person spoke first.

"It's the damn apocalypse and you're sitting here crying when you should be jumping for joy about the fact you actually have a stable place to stay." The person's voice was above a whisper and sounded slightly younger and feminine, meaning this person was a female  _kid_ _._ They didn't sound as if they were from around these parts either, hell, they didn't even have an american accent. The person behind the shotgun made a 'tsk' sound under their breath, as if they found the whole situation amusing.

"Grow up. Now, stand up and put your hands up. This doesn't have to get ugly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait guys! But it's finally here, and we have a new character getting introduced next chapter :) However, will they be a friend or foe? 
> 
> New chapter should be out soon, hopefully.


	26. A Lover’s Reunion

“I...I don’t want any trouble.” Zoey spoke trying to keep her voice strong and calm even though you could hear her vocals shaking. She slowly stood up and placed her hands behind her head as she felt the cold, unforgiving shotgun barrel press deeply into her spine. 

“Trouble? _Trouble?!_ ” The girl mocked, “You don’t think you’ve caused us enough of that? We’ve spent months locked up in here! But now a new face comes, and you expect us to be all happy about it?” The shotgun pressed even more into her back. 

“Wait, _us_? What are you—” 

“Fer God’s sake, Milly, put the damn gun down!” A middle aged woman and her companion, a man who looked in his twenties, emerged from the darkest corner of the room. She was a tall, dark skinned, plump woman with a hearty, southern voice and looked like she had a brilliant personality; Zoey was sure of that. She strode over and disarmed the supposed young teen ‘Milly’ of her weapon. Milly pouted. 

“Michelle we don’t know who she is! For all we know she could be Vincent’s next subject.” The girl argued and narrowed her eyes at Zoey, and she couldn’t blame her. Vincent had damaged too many people, their trust of others was bound to be broken. Michelle came eye to eye with Zoey. 

“I know you’re not going to trust me, I know what Vincent has done has hurt you badly...But please, believe me. I am with a group, we killed Vincent and his other group; we came back here looking for help! We don’t want to hurt you at all whatsoever.” She explained emotionally, trying to have empathy for what these people had gone through. 

“Guys, I don’t think she’s bluffing.” The man jumped in. This man had a dark green over coat with a grey undershirt which was speckled with crimson blood. He wore ripped blue jeans and black sneakers. He had scrawny, ruffled auburn hair with a few strands dangling messily on his forehead. 

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. 

“Zoey? Are you okay? I can hear other voices...” Louis chimed from outside the door, his voice was very close, as if he had his ear pressed up against the wood. 

“Zoey, huh?” Michelle cocked her head to one side and placed her hands on her wide hips. “That yer name? An’ is that yer boyfriend out there?” She smirked teasingly. 

The nineteen year old blushed hard at that, making Michelle chuckle. “No! He’s not my boyfriend, ugh! He’s just one of my teammates.” She clarified, cuffing her nose with her knuckle to hide her blush. 

“How many other teammates do you have, honey?” The man asked her. 

“In total, there’s seven of us. We lost two so far...But they are all downstairs in the main room—I guess it’s called that.” She responded.

“Alright then. Let’s go meet y’all, and if yer story checks out, we’ll trust that Vince ain’t comin’ back. Now let’s get ya lover boy.” She snickered. Zoey rolled her eyes but reluctantly pushed open the door to reveal Louis standing there. His eyes widened when he saw the other survivors and he backed away instinctively. Milly had her shotgun aimed again.

“Hey, hey! We don’t want—”

“‘No trouble’, yeah yeah, we get it. Start walkin’, I hear ya have some teammates downstairs.” Michelle waved him off and gave him a little shove on the shoulder to get him walking. 

With Louis and Zoey now in their charge they strolled cautiously down the various entwining hallways and corridors that ultimately lead to the main room where the others were supposed to be situated. As they were walking, Louis, as discreetly and secretly as possible, elbowed Zoey in the ribs lightly to get her attention. She looked to him expectantly.

“Who are these guys?” He whispered. 

“Some of Vincent’s subjects who were hiding out in the room I went in. I knew we should’ve checked this place out before we made ourselves at home. Anyway, I don’t think they are bad people, they just want to make sure we aren’t with Vincent’s group. Can we really blame them, though?” She whispered back. Michelle abruptly stopped them by snapping her fingers.

“‘Ey, lovebirds,” She stopped at a door, where she could hear voices inside, “This where ya supposed ‘teammates’ are? Don’t try lyin’, I can hear ‘em.” 

Louis nodded. “Yeah, they should be in here. Well, that’s where we left them at least.” He added with a shrug of his shoulders.

The man whose name they hadn’t learnt yet, pushed open the door and pulled out his rifle which he had kept hidden under his dark, forest coloured coat. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Nick muttered as he saw the people stride through the door, interrupting the conversation he was currently having with Rochelle. He quickly pulled out his Desert Eagle and aimed it at the three new people. 

“Well, tha’ ain’t exactly a friendly welcome, white suit.” Michelle chuckled as she pushed Zoey and Louis forward. “These two said y’all were here, but my question is, where’s Vincent tha’ sonovabitch.” 

“Dead. Has been for about a day now.” Rochelle stated, backing up a bit. 

“How did he die?” The male questioned. 

Nick glanced at Ellis as the question was asked. The air was tense and silent for a moment that seemed to drag on forever. “Stabbed in the face, several times.” He didn’t want to put Ellis through that again, so he kept the details to a minimum for now. 

“Well, whoever did it, thank you.” Milly replied gratefully. 

“What is all that noise?” Coach mumbled, walking back into the room from checking the systems in the building. “Oh my...” He stopped, he stared, he gaped at Michelle. “Michelle...Baby girl is that you?” Coach felt as if his eyes were decieveing him, he couldn’t believe he was looking at his _wife_ right now. 

“W-William? Oh god! William!” She exclaimed loudly and ecstatically. She practically skipped forward from the huge spring in her step as she threw herself at her husband and planted her lips upon his deeply. She was overjoyed. The man she thought had been dead for a long time was here; here for her, here for them. She cherished this moment like it was her last minute with him. In the background, the man and Milly lowered their weapons. 

“You can tell she’s Coach’s wife.” Nick mumbled under his breath. Rochelle gaped at him and punched him in the arm hard. 

“Nick! Shut up and let them have a moment.” Nick rolled his eyes but quieted nonetheless.

Tears were welling up in Michelle’s eyes as she let go of her husband. “William...All this time, I though’ ya were dead! I missed ya so much, darlin’.” 

“I missed ya too, Michelle. I’s great to have ya back.” Coach—although now called William—responded, equally as happy. Michelle then turned around to face the others.

”Y’all, this is Milly, the most stubborn teenager you’ll ever meet,” She laughed at Milly’s angered expression, “And this is Jack. Jack’s more laidback, but ‘e can be a bit clumsy a’ times.”

Jack scoffed from a distance. “Clumsy, my ass!

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Rochelle, this is Nick, Francis—I assume you already met Zoey and Louis—and that’s Ellis over there...He hasn’t been himself lately.” Across the room, Ellis was stood with his arms crossed across his chest, seemingly staring at nothing, but he was deep in thought. Normally, El would be with them smiling at the new people, spurting stories about Keith, even if he didn’t physically have the voice to, he would be there to greet them. Now all he had become was the shell of someone he once was, his optimism had completely burnt out. 

“How is he usually?” Jack asked, worry already evident on his face although he didn’t even know Ellis. This was a clear sign that he was indeed a good man. 

“He don’ exactly scream ‘Social Butterfly’ to me.” Michelle joked, but she stopped after she saw how solemn Rochelle’s expression was. Coach shushed her. 

“He’s been through a lot, maybe the most out of all of us—us seven I mean, I can’t imagine what you went through. He got stabbed by a cannibal, nearly choked to death by Vincent...But hey, I guess he got the upper hand, since he is the one who killed Vincent after all—” Ro was cut off by the young girl.

“What are we waiting for then? We should be thanking him!” Milly protested. 

“He can’t talk anyway.” Louis added.

“Wha’? He a mute or somethin’?” Michelle asked, furrowing her eyebrows. 

“Kid’s quite the opposite,” Francis laughed, “He’s a good kid. But like Ro said, when that fuck choked him it damaged his vocal cords.” 

“He got a few words out earlier but he still sounded bad.” Nick told them. 

“Well, it’s an improvement.” Zoey spoke. 

“Maybe I can help ‘im, I ‘ave a bit of medical experience in my belt!” Michelle announced optimistically. 

“What can _you_ do? There’s literally _nothing_ you can do to help him, it’s not the outside of his throat, it’s the _inside_. And as far as I’m concerned, you should just leave him alone.” Nick declared. Michelle narrowed his eyes at him and was about to retaliate when Coach jumped in. 

“Nick.” Coach stopped him by saying his name sternly. “You can try if ya want, Michelle, bu’ he definitely ain’ the most talkative type at this time.”

Michelle ignored their warnings and approached the mechanic who was standing alone on the other side of the room. 

“Ellis? Hello?” Michelle tried but she didn’t recieve an answer, hell, El didn’t even move. She opted for a new tactic and planted her hand on the boy’s shoulder, which sent him spiralling back into reality and he reflexively jumped from the contact and eyed the woman in front of him. He furrowed his brows and gave her an expression as if to say ‘ _Who the hell are you?’_ and backed away from her a little bit. 

Had he been oblivious to their whole conversation and introduction? 

“‘Ey, Ellis. My name is Michelle and I’ve came ta see if yer okay. Tha’s one hell of a bruisin’ ya got there on ya neck, i’s red and  purple! Can I take a look at it to see if I can help ya, boy?” Michelle gave him a comforting and reassuring smile but Ellis outrightedly refused, and he made that point _pretty_ _darn_ _clear_.

“If yew had somehow fuckin’ failed to notice,” He started, his voice hoarse and quiet, as well as being slightly higher than usual, “It really, _really_ hurts ta talk righ’ now. An’ hell, if I wanted yer goddamn help, I woulda asked fer it.” Ellis was losing his temper fast, and the longer he spoke, the quieter his voice began to get.

“But considerin’ I _didn_ ’ ask fer yer help, _at all,_ I’d appreciate if yew left me the fuck alone.” 

Ellis expected the woman to be mad at him, to shout at him and create a scene or something, but she didn’t. She had an odd sense of understanding present on her face. 

“I understand it is hard, Ellis. Bu’ the more ya shut people out, the worse off ya gonna be, my boy. We are tryin’ ta help ya here. An’ plus, ya neck ain’t gonna get better on it’s own, just takin’ medication won’t help ya, yer gonna need professional help to get it better.”

The mechanic fell silent before he spoke again, his voice even quieter. “But ya ain’t a doctor, are ya?” He snapped back.

“Yet right, I ain’ a doctor tha’s for sure, bu’ I do have medical experience, an’ it migh’ come in use for ya. I can see yer stressed out righ’ now, but if I get yer permission a’course, can I try an’ help ya?” Michelle had such a soft side to her at this moment in time, that woman cracking jokes only a minute ago had completely disappeared and replaced with such a caring woman. 

He almost believed her.

Ellis tried to say something back, but nothing came out; he’d completely lost his voice again. Great, now he couldn’t communicate for a while until his voice came back, if it did. 

But since he didn’t want to fight with this lady who generally wanted to help him, he decided to nod and let Michelle know he would let her help him, although all he wanted right now was to be left alone. Or maybe that’s what his mind wanted him to think, so he could become further isolated and lost within himself as he struggled with his emotions, his feelings, his mental scars. 

Maybe all he needed was someone, maybe he didn’t; he couldn’t decide. He didn’t have the decision to decide. 

After Michelle had gave him a hearty clap on the back and a sweet smile she had walked away back to the others, presumably to discuss about him and instead of resuming his previous position of being deep within his thoughts, he left the room. 

He speed-walked down the corridors, not caring that he didn’t know where he was going, not caring where he ended up, he just wanted to be anywhere but _there_. He didn’t want to worry everyone, to be the burden as usual, he didn’t want to be the topic of discussion, the person everyone needed to care about. 

Someone’s hand enclosed over his wrist and held tightly even as he tugged and tried to carry on walking. 

“Ellis.” It was Nick’s voice. It was always Nick. He was always the burden to Nick, the burden he had to care about, the burden who couldn’t take care of himself because his emotions were always playing up like some damn teenage girl. He hated it. He hated himself right now. He didn’t want his lover to waste his time on him, he isn’t worth that much! But no, Nick always has to be there for him. 

All the words Nick had said to him before seemed to have disappeared from his mind. He was so content of beating himself into the ground with negativity he forgot the one reason why Nick cares so much. 

“Look at me.” It isn’t a friendly gesture or an idea, it’s a command. It lacks the harsh bite though, it sounds more worried than anything and that little thing makes Ellis feel even worse. But he turns around to face him anyway. Because it’s Nick. Because it’s the man he loves. Because it’s the man he can’t lose. 

And their eyes lock for a moment; green clashes with blue. Nick can pinpoint every single pain in his eyes, every detail on his face that didn’t belong there like the frown that drowns out his smile easily, the solemn look on his face that could make the happiest person alive feel sad. 

Before he knows it he’s in Nick’s arms again. He buries his face and hides it in his shoulder and wraps his arms around his neck. The gambler wraps one arm around his waist and his other hand rests on his back. None of them move, none of them talk. There doesn’t need to be any words, just the comfort of someone is enough to make all the words in the world mean nothing. 

And Ellis takes in a deep, shaky breath as he realises his eyes are slowly becoming wet. It doesn’t take long for him to realise he’s crying. He’s crying his heart out into the shoulder of the man who cares for him too much. His tears leak down his face slowly at first, before they’re cascading down like a waterfall and he can’t stop. He sobs silently, and Nick obviously notices. 

He doesn’t say a word, he doesn’t mock him for crying, because ‘Real men don’t cry!’, he doesn’t let go of him and walk off and leave him, he holds onto him, and the mechanic swears he can feel Nick’s arms tighten around him as the tears fall. He says no comforting words, but that’s okay, because Ellis knows comfort isn’t Nick’s thing, but he does a great job of being there for him when he really needs it. 

And for once, it felt good for him to cry, to let all the emotions he bottled up inside him out and to cry with someone who wouldn’t judge him for it, because Nick knows he’s hurt. 

Nick knew he felt alone, and he felt guilty, and he was slowly descending into a sorrowful pit of depression and pain; he couldn’t hide any of it from him. 

Rochelle opened the door to the hallway they were standing in from the main room. She took one look at Nick and Ellis and her expression quickly turned melancholic. She opened her mouth to say something when Nick held his hand up and waved her to go back inside. His expression was serious, and Ro decided it was best not to intervene, so she left although it was hard for her to leave Ellis when he was in such a terrible state. 

But she realised that their mechanic needed his lover now, he didn’t need Rochelle for this. He needed someone who understood, someone who could be there like nobody else could and she knew it wouldn’t be right to take that moment away from them.

Even though it killed Nick to hear Ellis in so much pain and he’d do anything to get away from the tugging at his heartstrings because of it, he held onto him. 

And he didn’t let go for hours. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed I named this chapter before I wrote it and it kind of works in both ways. Michelle and Coach, and Nick and Ellis. WOW I’M SMART. 
> 
> Wooo,first chapter of 2018! It’s so hard to get inspiration I fucking swear. But I finally published it, and I’m proud of it. 
> 
> Even though I could not find it in me to write a new chapter, that doesn’t mean I stopped working on the story at all. 
> 
> For example, some of you may be wondering why this scene was included, and why I changed Vincent’s death:
> 
> ———— 
> 
> “How did he die?” The male questioned. 
> 
> Nick glanced at Ellis as the question was asked. The air was tense and silent for a moment, it seemed to drag on forever. “Stabbed in the face, several times.” He didn’t want to put Ellis through that again, so he kept the details to a minimum for now.
> 
> ————
> 
> In fact, I actually went back and did nearly all of the chapters I think. I added new lines, new scenes, which is why I recommend if you have some spare time you fo back to the beginning and you read it again. I changed most of the chapters to fit my style as they were quite old and outdated already (This fic is a year old now! Wow! Only 24 chapters in a year, god, I need to up my game ahah) and i’m happy with them now. 
> 
> So, back to what I was saying, the origin of that snippet above. 
> 
> Back in the fight scene of Chapter 21 I think it is, where Vincent manages to get Ellis alone and do a lot of damage to him, that scene was changed drastically, in fact, it changes Ellis’ character entirely in this story. 
> 
> Originally, Louis has the knife. But I edited that to Vincent obtaining the knife and then trying to use it against Ellis when he gets the gun. Then he throws him on his back yadda yadda yadda, you know the rest. 
> 
> But I changed it so Vincent loses the knife when he throws Ellis and chokes him, but Ellis manages to grab the knife and then stab him in the face several times with it. Then Nick shows up, but I didn’t end the scene there. 
> 
> The whole character changing thing is completely set on this scene because even though it is self defense, Ellis allowed himself to become so not himself, to completely mutilate Vincent’s face. When Nick is leading him away from the corpse, he notices it, and then starts to have a breakdown once he realises what he’s done. 
> 
> My aim in this story is to make it as realistic as possible, that will include the effect the apocalypse has on the survivors in general. Therefore, I did show symptons of PTSD on El in this chapter. Like he has an vivid image of Vincent’s face forever printed to the back of his eyelids and the back of his mind. He can’t escape that fact. 
> 
> Nick guides him through that and confesses he needs him, but not love yet, I’m getting to that bit soon, but then they return to the safehouse and instead of Nick and Ellis eventually falling asleep, Nick does but El doesn’t because he’s so emotionally scarred at what he’s done. 
> 
> I added this because even though Ellis is our overly optimistic, funny, little ball of sunshine, he has a breaking point. At one point the apocalypse will get too much for him because he’s just a kid, he’s got emotions and feelings like everyone else and he will need someone to be there for him when he really needs it the most. That was the intention of this scene; Vincent is his breaking point and Nick is the person who needs to be there for him. 
> 
> I also made Ellis’ hands extremely bloody from the encounter, to kind of foreshadow he has blood on his hands mentally because he’s actually killed two people who haven’t been infected (I added him shooting Jerry too). It wll have a tole on his character. 
> 
> Anyway, that was probably the biggest significant change out of all the changes I made, but I do recommend you go back and read that chapter because it will make the chapters after that make a lot more sense, even if you don’t want to re-read the others, it’s completely understandable :)
> 
> I will try and post a lot more, but thank you for sticking with me through this story! Hope you enjoyed and hopefully 2018 can be the year i actually finish this story and put a lot of effort into it! <3


	27. The Aftermath

Nick gently entangled his hands from around his younger counterpart and used his thumbs to wipe the remaining tears under the boy’s eyes away. Silently, he placed his hands on Ellis’ shoulders and stared.

Just stared. 

He calculated every facial feature that didn’t belong on his boyish face, every twitch in his eyes that indiciated he could turn on the water works again at any second; the expression he hadn’t seen on him before. 

Christ, if Nick thought he was bad when he had killed Vincent, this was _much_ worse. 

He had already told Ellis what he needed to hear back then, so what was he supposed to say now? If he just repeats it, Ellis will think he doesn’t care and just wants him to shut up his incessant crying for once—he doesn’t want that at all, but what does he _need to_ say now? ‘ _Oh, El, I know you’re hurting, but things will get better’?_ He can’t say that, because that’s bullshit. Nick isn’t an optimist, and he isn’t a comforter, he’s a pessmisitic con-artist. Maybe, he just needs to find the source of the problem...

If Ellis even knows that himself.

“Ellis,” He starts, tripping on his words a bit as he forces himself to continue, “Can you tell me what’s wrong?” 

The mechanic looks up at him timidly for a second, before his baby blues dart away from the worry behind Nick’s eyes. All it does if make a new wave of guilt overflow him. He cares too much. 

However, Ellis takes the question into account and thinks for a moment. ‘What’s wrong’? How do you answer a question like that in the apocalypse? People are dying, everything is out to kill them, their family and friends are probably dead...That’s what’s wrong. But there’s something else he can’t quite pinpoint...

It's like a darkness inside him that grows every minute, consumes him that little bit more...And he doesn't know what it is, but it makes him feel rotten; makes him want to scream at everyone and lock himself away from everything else. A side of him he can't hide from everyone of course, as said person who knows is right in front of him, but it makes itself known more every passing day. 

"I don't know, Nick! I don't know...I jus'...I's gettin' so hard to keep smilin'. To carry on. To kill all these people. To kill  _people who aren't infected._ I don' think- I don'  _know_ if I can do this anymore. There's somethin' tha's jus'..." He trailed off, his words slightly slurred from his previous emotions. He takes in a shaky breath and lets it out, trying to compose himself.

They both fall silent. Ellis is trying to calm down and Nick is at a loss of words, he doesn’t know what to say at all. Luckily, he doesn’t have to as a stupidly loud alarm sounded and red lights blinked above them. 

"What the—" Nick was cut off by the main door being swung open and Jack appeared looking frantic and panicked. He raised a brow as Jack approached them hurriedly. 

"We have to go, now! The mutants have broken out, if we stay any longer, they’ll—" Jack stopped himself as the hallway behind them was filled with approaching infected, looking more menacing than ever. 

There was a Smoker with more tongues poking out of him, they weren’t the original pink colour, they were now a discoloured red. A Hunter was trailing behind them with even longer claws than normal and his hood was completely gone. The Charger now had two massive arms instead of one, looking very much like a Tank; they could only hope they didn’t run into a mutated Tank. 

"Fuck! I thought you were going to kill them?!" Nick shouted at Jack before he pushed Ellis in front of him and they all ran for the door. 

"I didn’t think we’d need to! As far as I’m concerned, they haven’t caused any trouble before!" They all gathered in the room and slammed the door.

The others ran up to them, relief plastered on all of their faces. 

"Oh thank God, y’all are safe." Coach welcomed them. 

"Yeah, well, tha’ door ain’t gonna hold, y’all..." Ellis muttered as said door rambled and shook against its hinges violently. "We need to find somethin’ to barricade it with, an’ fast."

Rochelle spotted a metal bar connecting two pipes and tried to pry it off, having no such luck. She called over Francis and together the two pulled the bar from its original place and signalled for the others to move as they slid the bar through the door handles and bent it around them. 

"It’s not gonna hold those fuckers for long, so let’s get going!" Milly announced as she took out her shotgun.

"We can’t go yet, though. We need to get to the armory first, it doesn’t matter if we escape, we don’t stand a chance in hell of surviving if we don’t have anything to defend ourselves." Jack spoke out. "Can’t believe I chose _now_ to leave my rifle."

"I hate to admit it, but boy’s righ’." Coach agreed. 

"The real question is where exactly _is_ this armory? For all we know, the building could be overrun by now." Zoey pointed out, hesitant to stay in the building any longer. 

"It’s...Righ’ behind tha’ door. Fuckin’ figures!" Michelle vented her frustrations. 

"We’re going to need a distraction." Louis jumped in.

"And that is?" Francis said with an annoyed tone, scowling. "We all run in and die?" 

"I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m with Francis. You realise this is just a suicide mission, right? We’ll all run in there and someone will die, if not _all of us._  We should just get out while we can." Nick grumbled. 

"You can get out if you want, _suit,_ but you won’t live for much longer out there, defenseless." Michelle snarled.

Nick scoffed. "Oh and you think you’ll live much longer _in here!?"_  

"We’re wastin’ time, arguin’ y’all." Ellis cut in, "We either stay, get the guns and potentially die in the process, or we get goin’ now and at _least_ get away from ‘em. I do _not_ want to run into a Tank in ‘ere." 

Jack sighs. "Maybe it is a bit of a long shot...And we don’t want to lose anyone." The banging on the door became more persistent and when one of the doors nearly burst open, Jack made his decision, as did everyone else. "Yeah, we should run." 

"Don’t forget, we have my shotgun too!" Milly speaks in an optimistic tone, trying to uplift everyone’s spirits, despite their current predicament. 

"Oh great. We’re defenseless and the kid has the shotgun. Aren’t we in luck." Nick’s voice is laced with dry sarcasm, Milly shoots him a look. 

"Let’s just get goin’. Exit isn’t far from ‘ere, I know tha’ much." Coach declares and they all sprint for the exit. When they came to the final door, Coach used his strength and with one final push he flung the door open, just as the barricaded one was broken down.

They came to the towering steel gates, the mutants approaching them from the entrance. Nick shook the gates, confused as to why they wouldn’t open. 

Wait...

He turned to look at the left of the gates and spotted a keypad. The password! He needed the password! He mentally slapped himself as he tried to remember it. 

"Hey suit! What's taking so long?!" Francis called out to him as he pulled Rochelle out of the way of a Smoker's tongue that was about to coil around her. 

"Watch out, guys!" Louis called out to them as he tried to protect Zoey. 

"Give me a minute! I need the pass code!" The gambler called back as he tried inputting random numbers and hoped they would work. 

"Jack! Yew know it, righ'?" Michelle called out to him as she backed away from a oncoming Hunter. 

"No! I don't! Hurry it up, Nick!" Jack responded and shoved a Boomer away from him, briefly dodging the vomit as it spewed past him. 

"I'm trying, Goddamnit!"  _Think, damnit! What was the damn number combination?!_

Two tongues thrust out of the mutated Smoker's mouth and grabbed Francis and Rochelle. It began dragging them towards the horde of infected behind them as they thrashed out violently and desperately, trying to get free. The two were separated as they were dragged and considering Ellis and Zoey were closest to Rochelle they each grabbed her hand and tried to pull her away from the Smoker's grasp. Coach and Michelle did the same to Francis as Milly fired round after round keeping the others from attacking them.

_Wait, 0583. That's it!_

Meanwhile, Coach and Michelle got Francis free and ran to now hold on to Rochelle as she got closer. Milly was reloading and didn't have chance to see a nearby Spitter and Jack ran to Nick. 

Nick quickly printed the code into the machine and the steel gates opened slowly. Once they were open, he sprinted out and looked around for the others, who were still holding onto Rochelle.

He was about to run back to help, when a Spitter spat all over the Smoker's tongue and Rochelle's hands. The mutation had made the acid even worse, it even burnt her own mouth as it dripped down and caused more boils and burns to appear all over her already peeling face. It was now a murky green colour and the slightest contact with skin had a chance to burn it to bone.

On instinct, Zoey, Coach, Francis and Michelle all let go of Ro, and she would've been deadif Ellis had let go as well.

"Rochelle!" The others yelled out in despair as they thought they were about to lose the reporter. 

But he didn't. 

The spit burnt both of their hands terribly, and they both screamed in agony, however neither were ready to give up just yet, so with one final pull, Ellis tugged Rochelle free and they both sprinted through the gates, just as Jack and Coach slammed them shut once Milly was out too. 

The infected didn't give up just yet and began climbing the tall gates to try and get to them. Quickly, the now ten survivors ran as far as they could from the Vincent's building of insanity. They didn't stop until their legs nearly gave out and they couldn't see even the perimeter of the building anymore. The extra adrenaline from the thought of the mutants following them gave them more willpower to run. 

They stopped near the dock where they had all previously reunited, out of breath, but safe. 

For now.

"That was  _way_  too close..." The gambler panted, the others nodded in agreement. Nick then remembered what happened and looked around in alarm. "Ellis, Rochelle?"

Rochelle had brought Ellis into an embrace for the sacrifice he had made for her, mindful not to damage her hands even further. She was truly touched and lucky to be alive, all because their dear mechanic didn't let go of her. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she pulled away and gave him a grateful smile. 

"Thank you, sweetie...Y-You saved my life." She whispered the last part. "But your hands..." The reporter felt guilt wash over her. 

"'Ey, i's alrigh', Ro. An' don' worry about tha', we're in the same boat 'ere." He forced a smile despite the pain he was in. 

"Rochelle..." Francis started, "I'm...I'm sorry about that." He looked so melancholy. 

Ro turned to them and offered a smile. "I understand. I would've done the same thing. Let's just be grateful the situation was what it was." 

"Bad thing is, we don't have any medical supplies." Jack pointed out. 

"We'll find some along the way, I'm sure of it!" Louis exclaimed optimistically and comforted Zoey who was feeling ill at what just happened. 

Ellis was staring at his hands and assessing the damage that had been done when, as always, Nick appeared at his elbow. 

"Let me see your hands, Overalls." He demanded. Ellis gave a short, nervous laugh.

"Are ya sure yew even wanna? It ain't exactly pretty..." Nick shot him a look and forcefully grabbed his wrist. He didn't know what to expect, so when he saw his lover's palms, his eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. 

They were completely red, covered in burns, a few speckles of blood were present. Some of his skin had already started peeling away and was slowly flaking off his hands. His hands were shaking badly and even the air brushing up against the damaged skin hurt.

Nick was completely speechless.

"I guess...I'm glad I didn' let go. Even if my hands look like this for the rest of my life," El joked, always trying to make something good out of a bad situation; especially since he wasn't his usual self the past couple of days. 

The gambler gently brushed his hand upon the other's palm and wasn't surprised when Ellis quickly flinched away. "Hurts that bad, huh?" 

"Hell yeah it does! Goddamn...I can only imagine how Ro's are, though. Tha' shit landed  _right_ on her hands...Jesus." The mechanic commented as Nick let go off his wrist. 

"I'm sure Francis is helping her out right now. You took one hell of a risk for her." 

"Hell, I'd do it for all of ya. Burnt hands an' all." He cracked a smile and Nick rolled his eyes but a smile was present. 

"You're too nice for your own good sometimes." 

"Well, yew should try it sometime then." Ellis retorted with a laugh as his lover scowled. "Turn tha' frown upside down I'm jus' kiddin'."

His frown didn't 'turn upside down' however, it only deepened, as usual. 

"Hey, guys. There's a shop over here we could loot, or perhaps stay in if it's safe enough." Jack called to them.

"Anything's better than out here." The gambler grumbled.

All together and out on the road once again, they all made their way to this shop Jack talked about. With all limbs in tact and a rather close call today, Nick wondered when their luck would finally run out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, I personally don't think it's that good because I have so many fucking characters to include I either have a whole couple of paragraphs where people aren't included then a little snippet where they are. UGH! Spoilers, but that's why I'm gonna start killing them off soon. Real soon. ;)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it anyway! And hopefully more is to come soon. :D <3


	28. A New Location

The shop they had now inhabited was small obviously, but it would do the job for at least a couple of nights. Considering the survivors didn't have any life-jeopardising wounds, they could move out whenever they felt it was necessary, or if they were to be overrun. On the small downstairs floor of the shop, there were various shelves,once filled with supplies such as food, bottled water, maybe even household items that had now became weapons due to the requisites of the apocalypse; however it was now completely empty, scavenged by others in need. Upstairs was an attic-like space, with a few blankets laid down on the partly broken, wooden plank floor, used as a hiding and resting place by survivors before them.

First and foremost they had gotten to work on barricading the front doors and windows to deem it safe for the time being. Afterwards, they ransacked any other supplies they could find in the store; luckily for Ellis and Rochelle, they had acquired a limited amount of bandages they could use to wrap their scorched hands but in turn had no painkillers they could give them. It was better than nothing, though. 

When the building was now safe and secure, they could then worry about other concerns. Weapons, infected, safety; themselves. 

"We might not be able to stay 'ere for long y'all, so let's not get too comfy. Tha' horde of mutants could be comin' at any time, so we need to be ready to dash if we needa, ya hear?" Coach addressed all of them with a serious tone. 

"They probably will find us eventually, but we need some weapons to defend ourselves if that happens sooner than we think. We aren't even that far away from Vincent's place for starters." Louis pointed out before sighing heavily, "Then there's the risk of it being too dangerous to go outside in the first place with all of those mutants running around."

"They're sneaky fuckers," Michelle begins, making sure she had everybody's attention on her, "Quieter than usual, believe me, tha's why we always 'ave to be on the lookout from now on. For all we know, we could open up tha' door and get ambushed!" 

"Oh, well that's reassuring, Michelle." The gambler commented. 

" _Nick._ " Coach glared at him with a seriousness that would've made a lesser man's blood run cold. Nick grumbled and rolled his eyes. Apparently he couldn't make any sarcastic remarks to Michelle. 

"I's alrigh', hun, this fella is jus' an asshole." She fired back, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I am an asshole, get used to it."

"We're all in the same predicament here, Nick. We have to work together, so being a dick to everybody isn't going to help us at all." Zoey snaps at the gambler. 

"At least I'm doing more than sitting on my ass, practically batting my eyelashes at Louis." Louis and Zoey both turned beet red at Nick's words. In the background, Francis broke out into laughter. 

"I give you that one, colonel sanders." He struggled out between laughs. 

"Shut up, greasy pig." Nick snaps.

"What?!" The biker blurts out, "The fuck did I do?"

"You spoke, that's what."

"I am not!" Zoey exclaims. 

"God, here we go..." Jack groans as arguments ensured left and right in the room.

In the background, Ellis and Rochelle had the bandages between them and were helping each other patch their hands up. Rochelle looks up just as Nick begins attacking Francis about his vest, even if the biker did nothing to him in the first place. Louis and Zoey are blushing, Jack has his face in his hands and Coach and Michelle are having a go at the gambler too. Milly looks like she doesn't care.

 _'What a great team we have,'_ She thought to herself. 

"I really don't see what you see in him, Ellis." She sighs as she wraps another bandage around the mechanic's hand.

Ellis chuckles lowly at this, knowing the truth in her words. "Most people don't," He begins, taking a deep breath, "But...I guess I can jus' look past all tha', especially when he isn't like this towards  _me."_

She smiles, "I noticed. So, can I ask you a question?" Her smile suddenly drops, Ellis is a little surprised and it shows.

He quirks a brow, "Sure, wha' is it?"

"Are you okay?" 

Those three words...Those three evil words.

Truth be told, he was doing better now as they were out of Vincent's home. Maybe the place put him on edge and brought out all of those negative emotions; but he's still a little saddened that he now has _another_ person caring for him, he doesn't want that, he doesn't want to be the burden again. Maybe he's just pushing down all the emotions to suppress them before they consume him entirely.

He exhales before answering, "Yeah, I'm fine...fine as I can be, I guess." El eyes her closely, "Why do yew ask?"

"Because I saw you and Nick hugging the other day, and you looked really distressed. I just wanted to make sure-" 

 _"Hugging?"_ Milly bounds up to them and plants herself on her butt next to them. She crosses her legs and shuffles up to them. "As friends, right?" She tilts her head to the side innocently as she questions them. The mechanic and the reporter laugh nervously, looking at each other from the corner of their eyes. 

"Well, not exactly." Ellis stops and thinks, what exactly is he supposed to tell this tween? She's only young, and she might not even understand yet; it shouldn't be something she's worrying about in the apocalypse, either. 

She suddenly gasps, she leans in close and whispers: "You guys are a thing? But I was told only man and woman should be together?" Milly furrows her eyebrows and puts her clasps her chin with her hand, questioningly. 

Ellis smiles to himself. He remembers being told the same thing as a child, by his ever so strict, religious ma who would beat his ass if he did the slightest thing wrong. He remembered the day she found out he was indeed bisexual and she hadn't judged him for it, she had brought him in with loving arms and swelled with pride. For such a religious person that she was, she was very accepting of her only son, which had came as a great relief to El.  

Ellis missed her so much now. 

"Yew know, my ma would tell me the same thing. _'A guy and a guy can't be together, and neither can a girl and a girl, it's a sin'_!" He mocked the words he was always told, Ro and Milly watching him intently, despite all the ruckus in the background. "But as ya get older...Ya realise, it ain't. It damn isn't. 'Cause everyone deserves happiness, ya know? An' if they find tha' happiness with a guy or a girl, then tha's _their_ business and nobody else's, so why judge? Why tell someone wha' they can and can't be?" Milly looks at the mechanic and searches for a reply. She can't think of what to say for a couple of minutes, so she settles with a smile. 

"You're right...I can't believe I didn't look at it that way before, I guess I only knew what everybody told me." She looks back up at Ellis with a mischievous glint in her eye, "I like you." She then gets up and scrambles off again to Jack, presumably to boast about what Ellis just told her, considering Jack looks over and gives him a grin. 

"Wow...I wasn't sure what to say to her at first, but you handled that great." Rochelle smiles at him warmly. Ellis doesn't reply as he picks up the bandages and gently wraps them around Rochelle's burns, like she did to him minutes ago. 

They both jump out of their skin as Coach's voice booms above them. "ALL OF Y'ALL, STOP IT, RIGH' NOW." They whip their heads around, startled and watch as the big man pries Nick and Francis off of each other, their argument having escalated too far and into a full blown fight. 

"Guess we're needed to sort out boyfriends out." Rochelle chuckles.

"As usual," Ellis agrees, grinning.

Coach composes himself once more; "Listen y'all, we need to pull together as a team! Nick, Francis, put yer grudges aside for now and try bein' nicer to each other. We can't have this at every safe house, all the noise we make is only gonna attract more attention to us, an' we don' need that right now."

"I don' care what happens as long as y'all don' attract zombies to us an' get all'ova us killed, ya sons'a bitches." Michelle warns, glaring at the two males. 

"It wouldn't have happened if he would've just kept his scumbag mouth shut." The gambler claims, the hint of a smirk on his face as Francis gaps in mock disgust.

"WITCH! Oh sorry, got confused by all your crying." Francis laughs.

"You'll be the one crying in a minute when I kick your ass!" Nick retaliates. 

"Ha! Bring it, suit!" The biker cracks his gloved knuckles, ready to knock some sense into the gambler.

"Wha' did I jus' say, y'all?!" Coach yells out, getting between the two. Louis and Zoey simply don't get involved purely because they too despise the conman. Michelle grabs Francis with surprising strength and yanks him off and Coach does the same to Nick. 

"Can yew guys go one day without goin' at each other's throats? Coach is righ', this ain't helpin' nobody. Can yew two just truce for now? Please?" Ellis pleads, watching the anger in his lover's eyes subside as he looks at him, if only for a second.

"I agree with Ellis. Please, stop you two! Francis, leave Nick alone and Nick leave Francis alone. It isn't that difficult!" Rochelle hollers, losing her patience fast. 

Because both of the males don't want to argue with their companions, they both decided to drop the argument and try to be acquaintances for the mean time. Nick holds up both his hands towards El, who is noticeably gazing at him with slight annoyance, and says: "Okay, kiddo, truce. But I'm not promising anything." 

"Wouldn'ta expected any less, but it's good enough." Ellis shrugs. 

"Francis?" 

"Fine, truce." He snarls. "For now." He adds, with a smirk. 

"Next time, let's just leave it to Ellis and Rochelle to shut them up." Jack jokes, "I thought you guys would've been a better team, after all the shit I heard you went through." 

"We are a good team...Let's just say we all get along except for Nick and Francis; who have their distinctive differences." Louis replies to the man's query.

"I see that."

"The real question is can we trust them to shut up while we all get some rest? I'm beat and in the morning we should plan out what we're going to do about supplies and weapons." Zoey expresses her annoyance towards the two.

"We'll just have to deal with Francis' constant nagging for tonight." Louis grins. Francis glares at him.

"I'll make sure he doesn't make a peep." Rochelle threatens, a small smirk appearing on her face. 

"I like the sound of that." Francis replies and Ro blushes, not what she was meaning at all. An awkward silence falls over the group. 

"Jus' keep it down, you two." Coach jokes before continuing, "So, who's keeping watch?"

"I can if tha's fine with y'all. I ain't tired anyways." Ellis offers and the former football coach thinks for a moment. 

"As much as we appreciate tha’, boy, you an’ Ro should rest for today, hell we all should if we could." He responds.

"Guess tha’s smart." 

"Louis, Zoey? Could y’all keep watch, for a couple of hours a’least?" Coach pleads to the two. 

"Sounds good to me! Right, Zoey?" Louis beams, happy he’ll get to have a moment alone with the person he’s crushing on. 

"Yeah, I suppose. We’ll wake one of you up in a couple of hours, okay?" The teenager responds, smiling and wishing them all a good night and peaceful rest. The other survivors climbed into the attic whilst Louis and Zoey sat near the barricaded door to their make shift safehouse. 

They sit in silence for a couple of minutes, artlessly enjoying each other’s presence and comfort each provided. Timidly, Louis idly reached his arm around Zoey and wrapped it around her shoulder, pulling her close and sighing contently. Her cheeks tinge pink but she makes no effort to pull away from Louis; in fact, she finds herself inching closer to him. She tilts her chin up, looking at Louis expectantly. He looks down at her and is amazed at how beautiful she looks.

The moonlight shines in through the window, casting shadows over her gentle, emerald eyes. Still maintaining the eye contact, her hand comes up and sets on top of his, entwining their fingers together. His breath hitches in his throat as his eyes dart to her soft lips, his hand reaching up to trail his thumb across her lower lip.

They stop for a moment as their eyes slip close and they both lean in. They’re close enough to feel one another’s breath and as their lips touch...—

"Ha! I knew it!" Francis’ voice booms from the stairs, making both the survivors jump out of their skin. "That’s ten dollars you owe me when we get outta this shit, Ro!" Startled and faces as red as tomatoes, they whirl around to see their biker teammate peering out through the attic, Rochelle promptly slaps him on the arm and shuts him up for the night. 

More minutes tick by and when they’re sure the coast is clear, they lock lips, experiencing the passionate kiss they deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two chapters out within a short space of time, that’s new for me. 
> 
> Anyway, Louis/Zoey this chapter :D It’s more just of a filler chapter, hardly anything happens lol. 
> 
> Also, I input some of my thoughts about homophobia when Milly was talking to Ellis. I liked doing that part, as a bisexual person myself. >:I Gosh, it just annoys me. WHy do people judge before they even know that person? Know what they’ve been through? Know who their spouse even is? Love is love, and if you’re happy with who you’re with, fuck what everyone else thinks! 
> 
> Okay mini rant overrr
> 
> Hopefully i’ll have more chapters out soon, taking this time to write a lor as my extremely long writer’s block has decided to fuck off for once. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! x) <3


	30. Well...About this story.

First off, this is labelled as Chapter 30 because I already have part of Chapter 29 written and I'm not sure whether or not to delete it. Anyway, I believe this needs to be said since I've abandoned this story for about 2 months with no reasoning about it, I'm really sorry for that.

To be blunt, I'm not really in the Left 4 Dead fandom anymore, as much as it pains me to say it. If you've checked out my page recently you'd noticed that I'm writing about a new fandom 'Detroit: Become Human' and I'm stuck in that fandom right now and I've found it's something that has a complete hold on my attention. I think I'm stuck in the fandom lol. In all seriousness, it is a fandom that I especially  **love** writing about at this point; the characters are engaging, the whole storyline of the game is actually incredible; I could go on all day speaking about how good it is, but I won't do that. The real reason I'm here is to tell about the future of this story. 

So, does this mean this fic is discontinued? 

Yes  **AND  **no. 

 **Yes  **for the time being, I don't know when I will come back to it and try and finish it but I don't trust myself to finish it if I won't be invested in writing anything and it bores me, thus I can't produce the best chapters. So technically this fic is on a break, I will have to decide whether or not I do finish it though or perhaps pass it on to someone else who wants to finish it. I just can't find the ambition or inspiration to write about these two anymore. It's nothing personal, I've been playing L4d2 since 2013 and loved the ship and I think it might be time to move on to other things. 

 **No  **it isn't discontinued  **permanently. ** It might become so in the future though...If the motivation to finish this story doesn't come back to me I will give a heads up that it will be discontinued, leave a comment if you want me to perhaps tag you as a collaborator and give you access to the story if the need arises. 

If it is discontinued permanently I  **won't  **be deleting the story. I'll leave it up for people who still want to read it but it won't be updated or new unless someone else is writing it.

I'm really sorry, I know a lot of you liked this fic but I just don't want to write it for the time being. I hope you can all understand and once again I am truly sorry. :(

Have a good one, tell me your thoughts on this and what you think I should do. I may consider it but I can't make any promises.

**Author's Note:**

> One chapter=One level. So, Chapter 1 is Dead Centre: Hotel, if that makes any sense. I won't be doing all the campaigns though, only Dead Centre and The Passing. When they meet the other survivors they'll all team up, so stay tuned. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and feedback is appreciated! <3
> 
> (No idea how long this story will be, but I'll try and post a chapter every day/every two days)


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